Naruto:Superhuman Phenomenon
by badliar 2312
Summary: By the act of an unknown man five months before Naruto's supposed day of birth, few 'lucky' people in the Elemental Countries become a subset of the human species known as superhumans or Homo Superior. Naruto is one of these people, one of the strongest out of all of them, perhaps THE strongest. (Fem. Sasuke) (Naruto/Multi) (AU)
1. Divergence

So, to those of you who had voted for a rewritten version of Unorthodox Change of Fate, I present this to you. Yes, in case that you haven't read the latest chapter of the aforementioned fic, which was an AN (that's also the title by the way: an AN.), this is a rewritten version of UCOF.

You don't need to read the previous one if you don't feel like it, but to those of you who have read the previous one, I hope you find this better than the original one.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Divergence and Birth.  
**

* * *

"It never changes huh...?" muttered a man, standing tall in a rooftop of a village known as the one hidden amongst the leaves, "Humans... or their variations anyway, always succeed to thrive, to be the victor over the battle with nature itself... Sometimes to the point of conquering it all on their own."

The man went on unbidden, as if lost in his own thought, "But through it all, there will always be rules... Conflict of some kind will always arise. There will always be the greater threat, looming over them, sometimes without their knowledge."

He then raised his left hand slightly, "There will always be a chaotic force, either made or just is."

Then he raised his other hand to the same level as his left hand, "There will always be those who will stand tall against the oncoming storm..."

There was silence before he dropped both of his hand, "And there will always be those who just stand in the middle. Either unaware or privy to the supposed secret. And either insignificant in the grand scheme of things... Or pivotal in the situation they are in."

The man smiled as he looked upon the sight far in front of him, something so far away from him that one wouldn't know what it was exactly that he was looking at.

But he was very much capable to see from such distance... To him, it was as if he was seeing something that was merely a few feet apart instead of being separated for six hundred meters.

"But _then_..." the man uttered again, "There is always the one focal point in the oncoming chaos. Either an artifact, or a person. And that also holds true _here._"

Smiling to himself, the man placed his hands unto the pockets of his thick, hooded coat...

"Which shouldn't be surprising... After all, this is the place where _he _grew up after all. In a manner of speaking." he said cheekily before he said; "Let's see what would happen with a little bit of intervention."

And after he said those words, he vanished, leaving a trace of static electricity lingering in the air for a few seconds before it vanished as well.

* * *

Pregnancy.

Such a word that brought a myriad definitions of happiness into the would-be mother.

Kushina was her name, Kushina Uzumaki. One of the very few people that could be said as the remnants of the proud Uzumaki clan of Uzushiogakure, which was once Konoha's greatest and most formidable of allies.

She had been with her baby for five months and three weeks now, more than half the duration she would have to go through before the baby could be delivered.

But she just couldn't wait. After all, this was the product of the love between her and her beloved husband, the Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure.

She had been quite giddy at the prospect of raising a son or a daughter, if it were a he, then she would be the strict but warm mother who would be the one who would reprimand him if he had done something that was not proper.

_Especially _if he turned out to be just like her...

If it were a she, then she would be the playful but nevertheless orderly mother who would encourage her daughter to be someone who would go out, challenge the world, and become the most powerful kunoichi that had ever lived, surpassing her predecessors, Shinobi and Kunoichi alike.

'Oh, that would be just wonderful...!' she thought as she walked in the park area.

She was currently spending her time outdoors, one of many things that could bring her a great degree of enjoyment during her maternity leave.

Now while she's very happy to be expecting a child, there were certain things that it had deprived her from, such as the ability to be as agile as she had been before the pregnancy came along.

Considering that this was her first one, she was very careful in keeping the baby inside as healthy as possible, and if that meant she had to sacrifice her hobby of practicing kenjutsu along with minimizing the amount of ramen that she could eat in the span of a month into one bowl for about ten months time, then that's what she's going to do.

But the initial depression had been overwhelmed by the expectant happiness that came with Naruto.

Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. The name of the baby as propositioned by her husband.

Though one might wonder why would someone name their child 'Naruto', considering that it could mean fishcake, one of the many ingredients used in Ramen, it was not because she liked it so much that she decided to name the baby after her favorite ingredient of her favorite meal.

Despite her reputation of being slightly air-headed, even _she _wasn't _that_ idiotic. Who would name a kid after a meal anyway?

No. It was the namesake of the character of her husband's mentor's first novel. The character who will not give up as he fight the whole world, who cynically judge his idealistic, yet just, cause as something that will not bear fruit.

Kushina and Minato were hoping that the baby would become someone who could live up to his namesake, a charismatic character that could not be broken by the cynical world in which he lived in, a great person who would achieve many things in his life.

And that his name would be fondly remembered even after he's succeeded by the numerous generations that comes after him.

Such a dream that Kushina wished for her child. A dream of grandeur, but it's considered as normal for a parent to wish that their firstborn would become a great person.

Knowing Kushina Uzumaki, the life she wish her son would have was something that she would spend her lifetime to fulfill. For the sake of her beloved child, Naruto.

* * *

A sigh, a sign of tiredness, exhaustion, be it mental or physical.

It could be heard coming from the mouth of the man who had been watching the red-haired pregnant woman from afar, and then, he uttered out with a shake of his head, "Found her... and him."

Looking around his surroundings, the man then went on to say; "Well, this might either bite us all in the ass in the future... Or we might gain some invaluable things from this. A lesson perhaps. To not mess up with things when it ain't broken." he finished rather sarcastically.

Remembering about a concept that was coined from a TV series that he once watched, he couldn't help but to say it in his own words and within the context of what he had been involved in for a long time; "Interference with the progress of a society within a world or in other words, playing god with uncivilized being is strictly prohibited... Well guess what boss? Consider this my present for that help."

He procured a rather wistful smile as he said; "Thanks for what you did." but then it turned into a mischievous grin, "Let's hope that you won't become an evil overlord or something. ...Nah, your inherent goodness will prevent you from turning into that anyway."

* * *

As a man of action beneath the intelligence and wit that he possessed, Minato Namikaze found the work of a high-ranked official, or more commonly known as paperwork, to be something that really dulled his mind and body.

And that was the reason why several Shadow Clones of him could be found scattered in his office as the original sat on his desk, thinking some other things besides the goddamn paperwork sitting on the Hokage's work desk. _His _desk.

One of which was the woman that he had married, Kushina Uzumaki. The other was the baby which she was carrying for more than five months now, her child, _his _child. _Their _child.

Thinking of those things brought a smile to his face, he was very ecstatic when he heard the news of his wife's pregnancy, the prospect of having a family, a child to be raised, the things that they could do together, such things defined the 'true' happiness that he covet so much.

Being on his own since he was small was the incentive for him to dream of having a functional, loving family that his child could have and grow up in. A dream that would occur with Kushina, of that, he had no doubt.

Even with the knowledge of her being a Jinchuuriki of the Nine-tailed Demon Fox could not change the fact that Minato thought of her as a beautiful woman. A beautiful, free-spirited, though most-of-the-time-stubborn woman that no other woman could emulate.

Though one could easily like her because of her appearance alone, Minato loved her due to her personality, which was a reversed version of his own personality.

Where there's calmness, there's boldness. Where there's the capability of forethought, there's the tendency to act first before thinking about the consequences.

Like Yin and Yang, the opposites attract each other, and with that, they clicked.

Though that incident with the kidnappers from Kumogakure no Sato did help matters a lot, Minato had to admit.

Then Minato heard a knock at the door, and so he said; "Who is it?"

"It's me honey." Was the sound of his wife coming from the other side of the door.

Minato smiled as he walked towards the door and opened it himself, and when their eyes met, Kushina said; "Hi." she greeted him with a smile.

"Hi." Minato said, reciprocating her smile with his own. "Come on in."

After Kushina went in, she saw the clones Minato working their respective duties, and she couldn't help but say; "Wow, you're really laying it on thick with the Kage Bunshin, aren't you?" she said rather cheekily.

Minato closed the door as he said rather sheepishly, "Well... Come on, you know how much it really mess me up here." he said as he gestured to his head with both of his hands.

Kushina grinned as she chuckled, "Yeah... not really someone who's suitable for a desk job are you?" she said as she quickly kissed Minato's lips.

Minato ruffled his head as he said; "Well, I _can. _It's just I don't _want _to."

"Then how come you're ordering yourself to do this kind of thing?" asked one of his rather flippant clones.

"It's _because _you're me that I'm fine with it." Minato replied to that particular clone of himself with a smirk, "It's not really an abuse of authority nor it is slavery if I use my clones."

Then that particular clone grumbled indignantly before he returned to what he was doing.

Minato, the original one, sighed at the look that his wife gave him as he then said; "Alright, you know what? Tidy the place up, make it as neat as you can, and afterwards, your tasks for the day would be considered done, okay?"

"Alright boss!" said all of them at once with a chipper tone of voice.

Kushina chuckled at that and said; "It never gets old, hearing your voice so cheerful and bubbly like that."

Minato laughed and replied to her remark with; "Still feels weird though... Hearing my own voice like that. Really put things into a weird perspective."

* * *

"Alright... let's get this started..." spoke a certain man as he rubbed his hands together to prepare for what he's going to do next, he took a deep breath as he extend both of his hands to his sides and said; "Alright. Let's do this... Remember Cole, don't be like John... Don't burn it hot..."

Suddenly, blue-colored lightning materialized around his hands, crackling and sizzling as a faint blue aura began to cover his very being, and his skin began to glow faintly with luminescent blue light. The man then smiled as he then said; "...But burn it bright."

Then, he _clapped _both of his hands together, creating a reverberating wave of energy that was invisible to naked eyes.

* * *

When the last of his clones went away in a puff of smoke, Minato smiled at Kushina as he said; "So where do you want to go, love? What do you want to do for the day?"

"Oh, neglecting your duty as the Hokage are you?" she asked playfully.

"It's not called neglecting when there's a more important duty to perform now." Minato defended himself with his jovial tone, "Which is to say, the duty of a husband to tend to what his wife's desiring."

"Aww~, well there is this one thing that I want to have..." she trailed off, as if knowing that her husband would know what she really wanted to have.

Minato smiled sheepishly as he then continued to say; "Ramen is not really... something to be eaten when you're pregnant, Kushina. The amount of nutrition it has is less that what the baby needs to-"

"Oh come on~!" Kushina whined as she said; "I've been going without ramen for weeks now, I gotta have it soon or else I'll go mad~! And besides, I'm sure that Naruto wouldn't mind..."

"Well, _I _would." Minato replied, "But... (sigh)... alright, we'll do whatever you want."

"Yay!" Kushina yelled out as she clenched her fist, "Finally! Some ramen after such a long time...!" she then looked at Minato and continued with; "Don't worry though, I'll limit it to one bowl only."

Minato's smile widened as he said; "You know what? Just for that, you can have as many bowl as you want."

"Oh don't tempt me. I have Naruto to think of here..." she chided him lightly as she patted her enlarged stomach.

The pair was about to leave the room when...

"Oh!"

Hearing his wife so suddenly yelled like that, Minato turned to her, grasped her shoulders with both of his hands and said; "What? What's the matter? Is something wrong?"

"N-Naruto, I think..." she began as she then procured a bright smile, "I think Naruto just kicked!"

* * *

...When a human was conceived into the world through their mother's womb, that human's sense of self was not yet formed. Human's cognitive ability to think for itself and to acknowledge its surroundings only came about a few days after they were born, and even then, it would need more time before it could 'realize' one's self, the world surrounding it, and capable of complex thoughts.

All animals, without exception, could never be 'aware' of itself when it was still at the stage where its physical form was still inside the 'shell' in which it was being molded by the DNA of its parents.

However, what if this wasn't the case for a certain human child? Human mind, no matter at what stage, be it in its initial stage, is self-conscious to a degree after all...

* * *

"Really?" asked the ecstatic Minato as he went and placed his hand onto Kushina's stomach.

Feeling the movement of the baby, Minato's smile widened as he felt the feeling called joy bubbling up from inside him, "He did! Wow... that's amazing..." he said rather breathlessly

"Yeah! He... is... amazing, isn't... he...?"

Hearing the sound of his wife without the vigor that she had previously made him turn his attention towards Kushina, "Kushina?"

And he saw that Kushina's face was reddened, it was as if she was hit by a fever or something similar. "Kushina, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine..." she said with a smile that was intended to be a bright, energetic smile, but it came off as a weak-looking smile, showing a slight frailty of his wife that he rarely saw, "...Okay, on... on second thought... I don't think I'm fine... Help me please."

Without spending another time to be wasted on words, Minato helped Kushina stand on her two feet, he then placed his hand over her head and true enough, she was hit by a fever, "Honey, you got a fever, quite bad too. We should go to the hospital."

Kushina nodded rather weakly, "Alright... Go ahead."

Minato then activated a certain jutsu of his, a jutsu that allowed him to essentially move through dimensional void to reach a certain place in the matter of a single second.

And with the sound of displaced air, Minato and Kushina was gone from the office of the Hokage.

* * *

"Alright. That's done..." muttered the man named Cole under his breath as the faint bluish glow began to disappear, "Hopefully they didn't notice it until its effects take place. Then again, they won't be able to know what's going on wi-"

He stopped talking when he received a mental feedback that caused him to stumble slightly. He grabbed the right side of his head as he clenched his eyes shut and chuckled, "...Boss. Nice to hear your voice too. Couldn't you give me a couple of minutes notice beforehand?"

What he heard on his head was much yelling. Yells that were made out of anger.

But the man merely rubbed his head as he replied with; "I should've known that you would figure out what I was doing even from afar... But if you have doubts... just trust my judgment. Considering who we're dealing with... I'm sure you understand that this won't change him for who _he _is."

He then stood up and wiped off some of the dusts on his pants. "This isn't a blindly made bet. The odds are in their and our favor. Whoever it is that would go up against him wouldn't have a chance in hell." he spoke rather cockily, "And if he's anything like you, which I have no doubt in, his footsteps will be followed by everyone around him."

Sensing that there were multiple presence closing in, the man named Cole decided that it was high time for him to leave.

Gathering his energy, he focused on the presence of electricity in the air and created a single lightning bolt that fell from the sky and hit right in the spot where he stood, surprising the people nearby due to the sudden sound of thunder and the flash of lightning in such a sunny weather.

And when the sound died down and the light was gone, the man was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Arriving at the location where the mysterious beacon of energy had been located, the members of ANBU that arrived at the location could only see an empty spot where it had occupied.

The sudden pulse of energy was something that could be said as a 'bomb' of a sort. One that created an explosion of invisible, seemingly harmless energy in such a large amount that spread with such velocity and a yet to be counted area-of-effect, but presumably massive, judging by how quickly it spread and how it didn't even begin to disperse even after it already went 20 miles away from Konoha's outer wall.

And when they were tasked to quickly find the object, a lightning struck down from the clear sky that caught them slightly off-guard, but it did provide them the specific direction that they must take to quickly get to it.

But now, seeing that the object or someone who had brought it here was nowhere in sight, the leader moved on to the next best thing to be done.

"Search the whole village! Every nook and cranny, every alley, every building, every house, and every room! Whoever or whatever caused that must still be around here!"

Little did they know that the man who caused it had gone far, far away from Konoha. Their efforts would be proved futile, and only several people of Konoha would know the sensitive details of what had occurred. And even then, their knowledge would be very limited.

And none of them would have the slightest idea of what would follow. No one in Konoha nor in any village in any country within the Elemental Nations would know.

But in time, there would be one person who would witness firsthand, the everlasting effect of the mysterious anomaly that would be known as The Irregularity upon those who reacted in an unique way to the invisible energy.

And that person's name was Kushina Uzumaki... The jailer of the legendary Nine-tailed Fox.

* * *

Kushina groaned in pain as she's suffering in the agony of giving birth to her son, Naruto, after eight and a half months of pregnancy.

The birth was performed in a secluded location combined with several precautions placed around the room to prevent something else inside her besides her own son from interfering. The nurses and doctors that's helping her was pretty cautious as well, mostly due to the fact that her water broke when it had just been approximately two-hundred and fifty-four days instead of the estimated three-hundred days or more.

It could mean that she's just delivering the baby a little earlier than expected due to no fault on the mother's side, or it could mean that due to unknown external factors, the baby would come out earlier than expected.

And the examinations that she had done to check the baby's condition during the past months had produced some results that could be said as mysterious and strange.

Though the baby was healthy and suffer no physical defects, they found out that the baby's body was... different in a way. A glaring example would be the fact that the baby's brain was far more developed than a normal one during that time within the womb.

Other differences would be a more developed pair of eyes, refined bone structure, denser muscle fibers, more durable organs, and the indication of a more versatile motor skill. Indicating that this baby was not only healthy, but physically more refined than a normal baby's.

Such physical development in such a short time was nothing short of scary in itself, but nevertheless, they would do their best to deliver the baby. After all, with the wife of Hiruzen Sarutobi, Biwako Sarutobi, personally helping the birthing process and her husband helping with the Kyuubi's seal.

"You're doing great. Just a little bit more, grit your teeth and bear it!" the old woman barked.

"I-is she going to be okay?" asked the Yondaime Hokage as he kept the Kyuubi from breaking free. "I never saw her in so much pain before, is it going to be-"

"Don't gape and ask such questions, pull yourself together! You're the Hokage for goodness' sake!" yelled Biwako, "And do not worry about her! This much pain might kill a man but women are strong! She can endure this!"

Minato nodded as his resolve returned, "Right. Stay strong Kushina, you can do this!"

And do it she did. A healthy baby boy was born.

"He's out! Hot water! quickly!" Biwako ordered the nearest nurse, who promptly did what she was told.

Kushina, in her exhausted state, tried to turn her head towards where her newborn son could possibly be, but due to her bed-ridden state, she was only able to look sideways, and so she needed to ask, "...I-is he here? N-Naruto? Whe-where is he? I don't hear him crying..."

"He's here, he's here!" assured Biwako, "He's alive, breathing, and healthy, but he isn't crying!"

"W-what's wrong with him?" asked Minato, as worried as his wife was.

"I do not know... But don't be discouraged, from what I can see, he's fine and well." Biwako said as she covered Naruto with a cloth, "Come on now, child... Your parents are expecting you." she said softly to the blonde-haired baby who appeared to be sleeping.

She brought him over to Minato and Kushina, who looked at him with expectant yet worried eyes.

After a second of tense silence, the baby coughed once, twice, then repeatedly.

"N-Naruto! Naruto?!" Kushina yelled out of worry at seeing her newborn son coughing profusely.

But afterwards it stopped as he began to breathe regularly, prompting a relieved sigh from his parents. "Thank goodness... w-what's going on with him?"

"I do not know..." Biwako answered Minato with honesty, "He looks healthy, there's no apparent physical defects... But he's strangely calm for a newborn baby... Why he is, I do not know."

Then, Kushina saw his eyes fluttering, as if he's trying to open it, "Oh, l-look..." she weakly said to the others.

As they focused their attention to him again, Naruto slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing that he saw was the face of his own mother.

His blue eyes found Kushina's purple ones, and she found that his gaze was quite intense, it was as if he's evaluating her. But she smiled, her happiness unbidden at seeing the face of her firstborn. And then, she said; "Hi... Hi Naruto..."

He blinked once before he tried to reach Kushina with his hands, moaning as he did so.

Kushina smiled as she used her hand to caress his small, plump cheek and moved her head closer so that he could reach her, "Hello... I'm your mother..." she said softly to him.

When Naruto touched Kushina's cheek and rubbed it slightly, she felt happy. Happier than she had ever been. This little baby, this little, healthy baby boy was her son. She looked at the strands of blonde hair on his head, his brilliant blue eyes, and thought, 'He looks just like Minato... hehe... I'm kinda glad he doesn't have my red hair...' she thought to herself, remembering that despite the fact that her husband liked her hair, she had preferred her child not having that particular physical trait of hers.

"K-Kushina!"

Hearing her husband's voice filled with worry, she turned her gaze from Naruto to Minato, "Minato? What's wrong?"

He then swiftly moved towards the seal located on her belly and immediately strengthened the seal, "The seal! It's...!"

She then directed her eyes towards her belly and saw that the seal keeping the Bijuu at bay was spreading across her body, and one of the tendril-like ink even moved up to her cheek, specifically, the place where Naruto's hand was.

Biwako immediately pulled Naruto's hand away, and the seal's tendril retreated back, and Minato wasted no more time in giving his own chakra to strengthen the seal.

"W-what was that?" asked Kushina, who was still afraid because of what just happened.

"Whatever it was, I hope that is the last we will see of it." Biwako said as she saw Naruto, who seemed oblivious to what has happened, "Still, I had never seen a baby so calm and collected... Not to mention with eyes so intense, it seems as if he could comprehend his environment."

The old matriarch of the Sarutobi family couldn't fight the feeling that this baby was somewhat confusing. There's something that made him feel so _alien _that she couldn't help but to be baffled, but not really knowing why her instinct was acting that way.

"But despite my hopes, I think it will be best if he doesn't touch you for the moment. Just to be cautious."

"What? But-!"

"This is not an argument, Kushina." said Biwako, cutting her off, "We do not know what happened, but it's clear that being in the proximity of your boy caused that to happen, so for now, he will be put out of your range until we can safely test this again. Am I understood?"

After Kushina begrudgingly agreed, Biwako and the other nurses performed the usual procedures before she brought Naruto away, leaving Kushina and Minato alone in the delivery room.

"The Kyuubi, it... did it react to him?" she asked Minato. "I saw the seal trying to reach him but... that, that can't be it, right?"

Minato was unsure about what he had seen either, the seal's strange reaction to Naruto was something that made him afraid. He sighed as he replied with; "To tell you the truth Kushina... I don't know... But..."

"But what...?" she asked as her vigor's slowly returning.

"That was, undoubtedly, a reaction. A harmless one it may be, but Kyuubi... did react to his presence." Minato said, "What that means isn't... exactly clear. But I can hypothesize that either Kyuubi's the one who wanted to interact with him... Or it's the other way around."

* * *

An inhuman growl could be heard from within the prison reserved for the Nine-tailed Fox, who is tied into a large boulder by numerous chains.

For the past few minutes, it had been trying to break free from the one holding it at bay, when it sensed the barrier getting weaker due to its container's physical condition and exhaustion, it tried its hardest in attempting to escape.

But its container's significant other, the one they called the Yondaime Hokage, was not someone that it could underestimate. As he managed to maintain the seal's strength despite the nearly overwhelming odds. After all, it did put everything it had to try and break free.

After a while, it had begun to give up, until finally, it decided to let go and to accept the fact that it would serve another indefinite amount of time within its jailer's psyche.

But after a few moments of will-crushing defeat, it felt something.

Something, whatever it was, tried to connect with it, bypassing the seal and its jailer's mental fortitude within the span of a few seconds. And so Kyuubi responded back in turn, hoping that whatever this... interference was, it would be able to help it break through the seal.

But then, like all good things that had come its way for countless times before, it was taken away once again, leaving it with nothing more than a fuel to be fed to his ever-growing feeling of hatred.

However, as it felt the seal's strength returning ever so slowly, and imprisoning it once more in the dark corners of its jailer's mind, Kyuubi also felt that the previous interference had caused a difference within its jail.

It was similar to the feeling that a human would have when they entered their house after leaving it for a while and found out that the location of all the furniture in the living room had been subtly changed in his absence.

There was something that just doesn't belong here, was what the Bijuu thought. Something that gave a slight but noticeable feeling of wrongness. Like a piece of modern furniture in a room filled with antique objects, or a sad, melancholic song with grim undertone being played in a supposedly festive occasion.**  
**

As if on cue, the chains that kept it bound rattled, as if there was something that's manually shaking it. Then, it felt the tremor that shook the whole room, and for the first time in several decades spent being sealed to two different people, it grinned...

The giant fox then grabbed the rattling chains and gathered its energy and squeeze them to try and break them...

And to its glee, it managed to do precisely that.

Then it roared as its anger and hatred towards its jailer began to return with a vengeance now that there's a chance for it to break free from the abominable cage.

* * *

Biwako was about to reach the room where she would place Naruto in when the whole building shook, as if an earthquake had occurred.

"Wh-what's going on?" one of the nurses asked.

The old woman looked towards the location where the tremor originated, and her expression turned to one filled with abject horror as she realized what was going on.

"Taji, we do not have time to gawk. Namikaze-san can handle this and with that spike of energy, the other ANBU members must've been alerted and responded. We need to get this boy to safety first." she said as she began to increase her pace, fully-intent on bringing the newborn to a safe place.

As the whole building began to tremble and collapse, the old woman felt her frailty affecting her as she slowed down slightly to catch her breath after just a few minutes of running, "Biwako-sama, are you alright?" asked Taji.

She took a deep breath before she said; "I am... alright... But I can't go faster, my body just won't... let me." she then gave Naruto to Taji and continued; "Take him. You are younger, physically much more capable, and an ANBU to add. Go. Get him out of here, if possible, get him to Hiruzen. If what I'm suspecting is true... then this building will not last long. Not if that _creature _is indeed free."

"But Biwako-sama, I can't just leave you alo-"

"Do not argue with me, go!" she ordered Taji as she pointed towards the direction of the exit.

Her expression changed from a face filled with uncertainty to one filled with resolve as she nodded and said; "Hai."

When Taji ran away with Naruto in her arms, the old woman attempted to regulate her breathing as she leaned over a wall, 'That boy's but a few hours old... And I had already gone through many decades. If I were to die here, and him to go on living... then so be it...'

* * *

Orders are orders. One of the many excuses for a soldier to follow even the most atrocious of directives.

And despite being an ANBU, due to her profession overlapping with being a medic-nin, some of the time, Taji had difficulty in following orders. Of course, thanks to her ANBU training, her hesitance would always be suppressed so that she would have no feelings of burden in following them.

But due to her somewhat small experience in being an ANBU, she couldn't deny that most of the time, she cared more about the lives and well-beings of people around her rather than doing the most rational option available.

'There were only a few ANBU near Biwako-sama.' she justified what the wife of Sandaime Hokage had told her to do, she turned her head slightly towards the sound of destruction and added, 'And most of them are probably handling Kushina-san's problem with the Kyuubi... if that is indeed her Bijuu...'

**"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"**

The haunting howl akin to what one would consider as the roar that came out of a terrifying monstrosity of an unimaginable scale echoed throughout the area, and Taji immediately increased her speed, not because she was afraid... But because of who she was holding in her arms.

The faint moaning sounds that came from the baby became an incentive for her to survive, so that in return, this boy could also live on.

After she finally got out of the building, she did not stop and continued running, she didn't even hesitate and turn her head back...

Until she heard the sound of a building being completely decimated. It was similar to a sound of an explosion of great magnitude, in that it brought the feeling of dread that crawled in her spine.

She didn't stop, but she did take a look back...

And she saw the terrifying figure of the legendary Nine-tailed Fox, roaring into the shining moon up in the night sky.

Its howl alone was terrifying to be heard. But its physical appearance magnified that feeling of terror several folds, the gigantic human like body with the head of a fox covered in bright orange fur, a pair of red eyes that conveyed its anger, and the nine giant tails which was the reason why it was called as such.

The most powerful of the Bijuu, they said it was. And even though she was far away from the beast itself, the sheer _power _that it exuded made her believe that notion without hesitation.

Taji then re-focused herself to the task at hand and turn her head away from the beast. 'Hokage-sama will be able to handle it... I need to get his son to safety... I...!'

Seeing the baby, Taji couldn't help but to feel slight despair and uncertainty. She knew that the possibility of this boy's mother surviving the ordeal of the Bijuu's breakout was very, _very _small. And now that the beast had broken free, she had a lingering doubt that made her thinking that the Yondaime might not be able to survive from attempting to contain the Kyuubi.

But Taji steeled herself, even if the possibility of this boy growing up without his birth parents around was quite likely, she would not allow herself to believe that this boy would become an orphan. Not when there's still hope that they, or at least one of them could still be alive after all of this was over.

She looked at Naruto, who looked back at her with such innocent, curious gaze and thought, 'You've been brought into this world by parents who love you and have been expecting you for a long time... But why would such a thing happen on the day of your birth...?'

The medic-nin just couldn't take it. She hated the fact that fate could be so cruel and callous at times. "Naruto... Don't worry, okay? Your parents will be fine." she said to him, not caring for the fact that he couldn't possibly understand what she's saying, "Don't you worry... Everything's going to be alright. The Nine-tailed Fox will be put down, they will come for you, they will take you home, they will take care of you, they will watch you grow up, just like any parents would do to their child, okay?"

Struggling to compose herself, Taji then said, "...So don't worry... They will be there for you... I promise."

And so, as the moon loomed over the legendary beast, the Hokage, and the child-carrying medic-nin, the events promised for the future had changed. Veered from its supposed course due to several missing and added variables that influenced the direction it had been going before.

In another universe, this memorable day was not supposed to occur until two months from now. In that universe, the Fox's breakout was caused by another man.

Someone who was slightly... incapacitated as of this moment.

* * *

Deep within an artificially created underground system, the echoes of a man growling in pain could be heard throughout its whole area.

The sound originated within a small chamber, the man's pain was unmistakable as the thing that afflicted him so reached to cellular-level. Such a thing had assured periodical bouts of agonizing pain would befall him for an indefinite amount of time.

But, the man was not without patience and perseverance. He endured the pain for he had experienced hell once in his life before, and this one, to him, was not as painful as what he had experienced.

So it will not destroy him. For he had been destroyed long before this mysterious affliction came by.

Despite knowing that it was the time to enact the plan of his master, he could barely move during the intense bouts of pain that had been increasing during the past few weeks.

Endure it he could, but to utilize his body _during _said affliction was something that he couldn't possibly do.

Even with the help of his 'mutual friends', he was unable to overcome the pain. And so he had to let go of the one chance to enact the plan to forcefully release the beast known as the Nine-tailed Fox and control it to destroy the village in which its jailer lived on.

Little did he know that it had already happened despite his lack of involvement...

But nevertheless, when he did find out, it would not satisfy him. Nor would it give any semblance of happiness for him.

For his master's plan, the one that he had sworn to help in succeeding after his demise, was irrevocably ruined.

Knowing this however, he resolved to form a new plan. One that would be similar in spirit to his master's previous one, but different in its execution.

However, all of it had to wait until this affliction goes away in due time. Preferably in the shortest amount of time as possible.

But even if it would not be gone in the near future... The man's patience and perseverance would not bring him down.

'If I could endure the hells that I've been through for the last couple of years... What difference would going through another couple of weeks or months of the same old thing make?' he thought bitterly.

He growled in pain again due to the near-constant agony of having the alien biological structure that had been implanted on him for several years on the right side of his body was being rejected in conjunction of it growing new ones to replace it in such a continuous, but slow pace.

'...This will not defeat me... I have to make something out of this... I _will_ make something useful out of this... I swear...for all that I've worked for, for all that I've lost... I _will _come out of this _stronger than before._ I will not become _weak!_'

* * *

Curiosity. The desire to know. To learn. In his eyes, everything must've seemed... wondrous, amazing, and each of them different.

The intensity of his gaze was very adorable to Taji's eyes. It was as if he's trying to comprehend the things around him. And she had a feeling that he's learning many things with every second he's spent awake.

It was just thirty minutes ago when she finally reached Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had already heard the sound of explosion that came from the remote area that was caused by the Kyuubi and was about to prepare a group of Shinobi to come along with him to investigate.

When he saw that she brought Minato's child with her, he had immediately asked her about what was going on.

She immediately told him what had happened. The Kyuubi somehow broke free, and in the wake of the beast's breakout, the ANBU members that was guarding the building where Kushina was delivering Naruto in had came to Yondaime Hokage's aid to quell the beast.

Almost immediately, Hiruzen Sarutobi became the stern leader known as the Sandaime Hokage, he immediately gathered many Shinobi and Kunoichi from Chuunin to Jounin class to aid Minato while ordering the civilians and the would-be-ninjas and Genins be protected by several Jounins and members of ANBU.

Taji was ordered by him to secure Naruto's safety. And she immediately brought him to the nearest shelter and had been staying there to this moment.

It was a shelter that she shared along with several others, most of them civilians, who were filled with fear. Fear that the Kyuubi's power would prove to be too much for even the Hokage to handle.

Even she could only hope that what they're assuming wasn't the case. 'Hokage-sama... please, don't die. Your son is waiting for you... Please, save Kushina-san and return...' she pleaded.

"Excuse me..."

Hearing the soft voice of a woman calling out to her, she raised her head and met with a woman with jet black hair and onyx-shaded eyes. The physical traits of an Uchiha.

Like her, she also carried a baby with her. Taji could not see whether it was a boy or a girl, nor of its exact age. But if she were to guess, the baby was probably a month old.

"I can't help but notice... that baby looks very similar to Minato Namikaze." she said with a low volume, "Is he his son?"

Taji nodded as she said; "Yes. This is Minato-sama's son." she said as she smiled at Naruto.

Then, the Uchiha woman's face turned rather apprehensive as she went on to say; "They say that the Kyuubi was sighted nearby, is this true?"

"Yes. It is indeed, true." Taji answered.

The woman then seemed to be contemplating something before she sat down in front of her and whispered, "My name is Mikoto Uchiha... And I know about the Yondaime's relationship with Kushina Uzumaki."

Taji's eyes widened, she knew that Mikoto Uchiha was a close friend of Naruto's mother, and so she would know about some things that the public of Konoha are not aware of.

And she proved it when she continued with; "And I know... that she's the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi."

There it was. If she knew about her status as a Jinchuuriki, that would also mean that there's a possibility that she also knew about the meaning of Kyuubi's sighting. "What is going on with Kushina? Is she...?" she trailed off, as if not wanting to speak further.

Taji could only shook her head as she said; "I do not know... I was tasked by Biwako-sama to get this boy out. And now, my task is to keep him safe... I know nothing about what's going on."

Mikoto took a deep breath and a depressed sigh, knowing that her friend, Kushina, might be dead. "...Is Minato still...?"

"Yes."

"...I see." she said after a moment of silence. She then decided to ask; "What's his name?"

Taji smiled again as she said; "They named him Naruto."

Mikoto procured a melancholic smile as she muttered; "Naruto, huh...?" she asked rhetorically.

Seeing the blonde baby boy looking at her so intently, Mikoto couldn't help but to smile, 'He has his father's looks...' she thought. Then, she turned to the sleeping baby that she's holding and said; "Well, Naruto... this is Satsuki."

The baby girl was shown to Naruto, whose eyes almost literally sparkled with curiosity as he went and try to reach her with his hand.

Mikoto smiled and said; "He's very aware of his surroundings, isn't he?"

"Yes... he is." answered Taji.

Ever since his birth, Naruto had demonstrated his advanced cognitive functions that should only come up once he's a little bit older than a few hours. 'He's not an ordinary child...' Taji thought.

"By the way... what's your name, if I may ask?" asked Mikoto.

"My name's Kanzaki. Kanzaki Taji." answered Taji.

It was about an hour or more after their meeting that the it was declared that the whole situation had been resolved and they could sleep peacefully.

However, before they could go into their respective homes, the Hokage had something to say for the population of Konoha. And so, Taji, along with Mikoto, went into the center of the town to hear what he had to say...

Before they arrived at the town center, they were expecting Minato Namikaze to stand and tell them that the Kyuubi had been put down. And that what he wanted to say was an assurance of a sort, something that would calm the fearful masses down.

But what they saw was Hiruzen, he stood there, surrounded by some ANBU members as he waited for the gathered population to calm down so that he could explain the reason why they were gathered there.

Then after the masses had all calmed down, he began his speech.

"People of Konoha..." he began, "Today, we of the Shinobi forces had responded to a threat posed by a Bijuu. The Nine-tailed Fox, to be exact. And I am here to tell you... that the threat it posed... is no more! The Kyuubi has been defeated and pushed away from our village!"

The people began to cheer out of relief, glad that they were safe from harm's way.

"However!" shouted Hiruzen, silencing them again, "We didn't manage to do so without losing some people in the process."

When that statement was spoken, the whole crowd became tense and silent, and then the old man said this; "In the aftermath of the battle... Among the few who lost their lives, there was one remarkable person who has sacrificed his life for ours... Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, has fallen in the line of duty."

Murmur of disbelief, grief and sadness began to wash over the crowd, and it hit Taji the hardest, because her hope for the boy's life had been crushed with that simple sentence.

"Due to his death, I shall once again take the mantle of the Hokage. We shall prepare a proper funeral for the Yondaime Hokage and the others who died protecting us all." he stated, "And as the current Hokage, I order you all... to take a moment of silence for Minato Namikaze and these brave people."

And so they did. Out of respect for their fallen leader, who sacrificed himself for their safety. And after it was finished, Hiruzen continued; "That is all. Go to your home, all of you. We've lost a few but great men today... Let their sacrifice be remembered."

With varying degree of grief, the crowd dispersed as they began to leave the premises, their vigor considerably lessened after the news of Yondaime's death.

But Taji didn't leave, she walked towards Hiruzen, her expression filled with sadness, despair and grief, combined together. "Hokage-sama." she called to him.

Seeing her, Hiruzen immediately went to her, he looked at the baby boy as he cast his head down as he said; "Forgive me child..."

"Hokage-sama, w-what about Kushina-san?" Taji asked, hoping that at least the baby's mother lived still, "Did she survive?"

The Hokage's reply was his silence and his grim expression... And Taji knew that the answer was not the one that she had been hoping for. "...I-if so... then what would happen to him?" she asked about Naruto, now concerned about the baby's well-being.

Hiruzen sighed as he said; "It will be discussed by the council... But nevertheless, I will have the final say. I will do what's best for him, I promise."

Taji nodded, "Good... good. Thank you so much Hokage-sama, I..." she stopped when she was reminded about who she had left behind, "Hokage-sama, did Biwako-sama made it?"

Hiruzen nodded, "She did, but... She suffered many injuries. The best medic-nins in this village are trying to save her, but..."

"...Oh..."

The old Hokage sighed before he noticed how close Taji was holding Naruto and how attached she was to the little baby boy, 'Hm... Maybe I could...' he procured a faint smile as he thought, 'Perhaps... I will see whether or not she would agree to the notion.'

"Taji, if there is a chance of you becoming the one responsible in taking care of Naruto, would you take it?" Hiruzen asked.

"...I-I'm sorry Hokage-sama?" to her, the question seemed so sudden and out of nowhere, so it was the only response that she could form.

Hiruzen smiled and said; "Would you be willing to be his adoptive parent if there is a chance for it to happen?"

"A-ah, I-I..." she was somewhat incapable to immediately answer that, but despite that, deep down, she knew what answer she would give. So she took a deep breath to compose herself before she said; "I would, Hokage-sama. I... I cannot bear to think of him growing up alone. If Minato-sama and Kushina-san isn't around... And if I were chosen to be his parent... Then I shall do my best to raise him."

Hiruzen nodded as she patted her shoulder, "Then I will see what I can do to make that happen."

Taji smiled as she nodded, "Thank you Hokage-sama."

He nodded before he left, and as he performed a Shunshin to reach the Hokage building, his thought was; '...Minato... I will make sure of Naruto's safety and well-being... I promise you with my life.

'And I'm sorry as well... for what we had to do...'

* * *

**To be continued...**

* * *

So, what do you think? A new story altogether with some elements from the old ones. Took some elements from some comic books as well, which would be glaringly obvious in the next chapter if not in this one.

If you're wondering who the heck Kanzaki Taji is, she's not an OC that I made up, she was a canon character made by Masashi Kishimoto that was assigned to the task of helping Kushina deliver Naruto. Since the only background information about the character was just 'she was an ANBU tasked to help Kushina delivering her baby before she was killed by Tobi', she's essentially an OC Stand In, and so I decided to use her and add a surname to her given one.

And why would Hiruzen try to assign Taji to adopt Naruto? Well, in many fanfiction stories that addressed the question why Naruto was not given to a specific clan to be adopted or to Jiraiya or Tsunade and instead leaving him as an orphan, it was to prevent him from being known by Konoha's enemies like Iwa or Kumo.

Take that as you will.

Anyway, the next chapter will be set eight years after the ending of this chapter.

Thank you for reading. And if you would be so kind, please leave a review.


	2. Troubled Childhood 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto along with Shueisha as the company that owns Shonen JUMP owns the franchise.

So this chapter is a little bit slow... But this is an introduction chapter for Naruto and Satsuki's character along with their respective powers, so I decided to give a foreword of this chapter in advance.

Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

**Chapter 2: Troubled Childhood 1  
**

* * *

It was approximately eight years after the the Kyuubi sighting that spread panic amongst the population of Konoha. Eight years that had passed in relative peace, except for an affair with Kumogakure four years past regarding a certain prominent clan from Konoha.

In the past few years, compared to the initial few weeks after the incident, the people's fear of the Kyuubi had diminished greatly. Mostly due to the fact that the numbers of those who died was not that great. But the sacrifice of one Minato Namikaze made him remembered by the citizens of Kumogakure with utmost fondness.

It was said that he fought valiantly despite the overwhelming odds that was stacked against him. That he summoned the great toad called Gamabunta to aid him in subduing the beast. The great final battle of Konoha's Yellow Flash. He died doing what he had done during the Third War... serving and protecting Konoha with the risk for his life.

He was an exemplary Konoha Shinobi. One whom every Shinobi of Konoha must aspire to. And a Shinobi that must be an example to those who wanted to become one.

"Iruka-Sensei, we've already heard this story several times already." complained one of the students, prompting the Chuunin-ranked teacher to turn to him, prepared to give a verbal rebuke.

"Oh, and are you already bored with it, Kanzaki Naruto-san?"

The boy in question was none other than the son of Kanzaki Taji. Naruto was his given name.

Fond of the color of orange, it was not a surprise for the others to see him wearing a long-sleeved shirt colored in orange with black-colored sleeves.

Only few within the village knew _who _he really was. Of his heritage. His physical traits stood out quite prominently, bright blonde hair, sharp blue eyes that had a slight edge to them, as if he's assessing every single detail of what he's seeing. Along with three pair of thin lines across his cheeks, which resembled a cat's whiskers to a degree.

And to add to the color of his eyes and hair, was his physical structure. Despite being only an eight year old in age, his body had grown to a child's tallest possible height during that time, effectively making him somewhat intimidating and slightly looked up on by his classmates, figuratively and sometimes, literally.

He's a rather introverted person, but not emotionally stunted. He would talk if spoken to, respond normally to something that would draw a normal, emotional response, but rarely would he talk or show any range of emotions of if not given an external stimulants to do so.

So his remark upon the story of the Yondaime Hokage was quite surprising to Iruka. Was his boredom really that powerful? To the point where he decided that he had heard too much of it and felt compelled to complain?

"I'm just saying that we all know the whole deal. You've been periodically telling this story ever since we first started, either in the end of the first week of every month or in the first day of the week of every even-numbered months." he said, "The reason why you're telling us this story is not lost to us either, so I'm just saying that your message has already been delivered. Crystal clear."

"Then can you tell us the reason _why _I deem this story so important that I have to tell it to all of you, Naruto?"

"Yes." Naruto said without hesitation, "The Will of Fire. Every true Konoha Shinobi must love, believe, cherish, and fight for the village's sake. And sometimes, to die for it's sake. The Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, held that belief close to his heart, and so he saved the village from the Kyuubi. He died so that there will be dozens others to replace him. All of us here. Sitting here, in these chairs... We are the ones he loved, cherished, believed in, and fought for. We are those who will bear Konoha someday. And that is why we must become-"

"-The inheritors of his Will." Iruka finished for Naruto. He smiled as he thought, 'He remembered the very first speech that I gave after the first time I told this story to the students nearly two years ago... Amazing.'

Iruka nodded and said; "Precisely. And all of you have understood it?" he asked the remaining students.

The others were visibly impressed by what Naruto just said, but they responded to their teacher's question with a nod. And it prompted Iruka to continue; "Well then... then I suppose it was kind of idiotic of me to repeat it numerous times to you all, isn't it? Then, this will be the last time I'll tell you this story."

Some minor cheering were heard as most of the students were glad that the story-slash-history times regarding the Yondaime that they already knew about was now over.

"Now, Let's move on to the basics of Ninja Techniques, starting with the three basic classifications. Can anyone tell me the names of the classifications and explain what exactly they are, respectively?"

* * *

It was at noon when the Academy's schedule had run its course. Allowing the students to go to their respective homes and for the teachers to continue their work.

One student in particular didn't bother to gather with a group of his friends to either spend time playing with each other or to go home together in a group. As his classmates walked out of the Academy, he opted to walk alone while staying silent the whole way.

Naruto was not someone who would actively seek companionship. Though that's not to say that he had never attempted to do so, the active attempts to make friends was prevalent when he was five, where he was bent to try to blend into a group and become one of them.

But after finding out his... symptoms, he decided that it would be better to draw away from them. At least for a little while.

Because even in a world where the youngest of Konoha's ANBU was of eleven years of age, his ability would put him far above his peers at the Academy with breath-taking ease.

He knew his limit. The amount of power that his muscles could exert, the range of his sight and hearing, the strength of his heart, the thought process of his brain... All of them and more of his body's capability could be considered as something extraordinary in the eyes of Shinobies. Let alone civilians.

Case in point: His ability to absorb information and remember them with nigh-perfect clarity.

Eidetic Memory. At least that's the name of his capability to remember almost everything that he had experienced with nigh-perfect clarity. And he could also instantly recall a particular memory without any specific external or internal stimulus.

The farthest memory that he could dig up from the recess of his mind was the memory of seeing a woman with red hair and purple eyes. Smiling as she made an eye contact with him and spoke something that he didn't really understand. Before that, there was nothing else that he could remember, and he had deduced that it was because there was nothing to remember.

He had deduced that it was because that woman was there the moment of his birth. And before that, there was only moments where he was inside his mother's womb, which he could not remember. Perhaps it was for the better too.

This ability frightened him when he realized that none of his friends could remember _that _far back.

The farthest that most of them were able to remember was when they were four years old. Some could remember to the events that happened when they were three, but the numbers of those who could were few.

However, this ability was just the first of many others that he would come to realize and those abilities would allow him to make an informed decision as to how he should act...

"Hey, Naruto!"

Hearing the voice of someone calling him, Naruto turned to the one who did, and he saw one Inuzuka Kiba, walking towards him with a smirk, "Hey, wanna come with me and my friends? We're going to play in the park."

Naruto smiled as he responded to the young Inuzuka's question, "Sorry. I prefer to go home."

"Aw." Kiba said, looking somewhat bummed by his answers, but expected it from him nonetheless. "Well alright then. By the way, my mom said hi, and she also said that you better take good care of your dog."

Naruto nodded, "I will. Thank you for allowing me to take one from your kennel too by the way."

"Hey, the poor guy's been in a rut for the past few months until you came along. If anything, we should thank _you_." Kiba said before he walked away, "Anyway, take care of yourself man."

Kiba Inuzuka was a friend of his. One of the few that became that way not because of Naruto's attempts, but because of his own willingness.

Brash, loud, motor-mouthed, and obnoxious at times, Inuzuka Kiba was something that Naruto was clearly not. But despite, or perhaps _because _of that, Naruto could find within him a friend that he could relate to.

Their first meeting was not what one would call as a memorable one. Mostly it was just Kiba greeting him and Naruto responding back but without any follow-up or a conversation that usually come after such meetings.

But overtime, they grew closer, due to the fact that Kiba's mother had taken a liking to visiting his house and talking with his mother. And sometimes, she brought Kiba along with her and so the two of them became friends. Despite their difference in personality.

However, despite their friendship... There were some things that even he wasn't privy to.

As Naruto walked towards the opposite direction, he placed his hand to the pockets of his pants and silently tilt his head down. A posture that he had grown accustomed to because of how meek and submissive it seemed.

Normally, this posture would attract a horde of unique student cliques called 'bullies', but due to his height and the unintentional sheer intensity of his gaze, no one of his age would even dare to try to intimidate him.

Not to mention that he's become accustomed to the posture due to the fact that it also made most people draw themselves away from him.

Which was the initial intention.

And as he walked, he noticed that most people passed him by without even glancing back at him, Naruto smiled contently as he's retracing his exact steps in walking towards the school to reach his house.

* * *

"I'm home." Naruto announced from the entrance as he entered his house.

_"Welcome home Naruto." _his mother said from the living room, located quite a few yards away from the entrance, close enough for him to hear what she's saying, _"How was school today?" _

"It was quite good. Nothing out of the ordinary though." he replied as he took off his sandals.

He walked towards the living room and found that his mother, Taji Kanzaki, turned out to be in the kitchen adjacent to the living room, without any cover from a concrete wall. She wore a simple white-colored, long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of beige-colored trousers.

She had also let her hair grow over the years, and now, she styled it into a side plait that she positioned on her right shoulder, "Really? Nothing special from... say, Satsuki?"

Naruto sighed before he chuckled and shook his head, "Mom, come on. Stop trying to hook me up with her, we're only eight years old."

"Oh but we know how different you two really are." Taji said as she returned to preparing meal, "You two are far more mature than most kids your age. And every time you two are together, both of you are quite hard to be separated from each other."

"That was two years ago mom. Things... changed." Naruto said sheepishly.

Taji looked at Naruto and smiled rather solemnly, "Naruto. Just because you have these abilities doesn't mean that you have to hide them and draw yourself away from other people. You know Satsuki's brother Itachi, very smart and talented, and he never hid it from anyone."

"It's different mom. I... I need to experience normalcy. At least until I've got this whole... abilities of mine down to the last detail." said Naruto, "I just can't be like Itachi. And even for me, his thought process is hard to understand."

"Well, he is quite a mystery. Even Mikoto-san aren't quite sure what to think of him." Taji remarked, remembering that the boy's mother had lamented that fact several times whenever she visited her and Naruto.

Mikoto Uchiha was different from the other members of her clan. When Taji began her new life in raising Naruto, she was one of the very first who came and offer help in anyway possible.

As such, it was to no surprise that Satsuki had grown close with Naruto, mostly it was due to the fact that she had always been brought along with Mikoto anytime she visited Taji and Naruto.

The two children's relationship was akin to a friendship between two best friends. However, as of late, because Naruto had been intentionally letting a bit of distance to grow between themselves and Satsuki having new friends to interact with, they hadn't been as in touch as they were before.

But nevertheless, Mikoto still took time to visit, though Naruto hadn't had the courtesy of being told as to why exactly she always took some time to check on him and his mother, he nevertheless appreciated it, and Taji shared his gratitude as well.

More so with Taji, due to having the support of Kushina's friend, who approved and helped her in taking care of Naruto.

She had seen the boy growing up so fast, -_frighteningly _fast, but then again, she had a suspicion that it might be because of his unique symptoms-, it made her feel the warm and fuzzy feeling in the place where her heart was.

Taji had grown to care and love him as how a mother should. And he grew to be such an independent and capable young man that would make any parents proud.

She had heard about how other parents' in the Academy said about Naruto. Of how he's calm, collected, mature, and cast an image of a brooding, thinker teenager instead of a precocious, intelligent adolescent that he really was.

Kind of like his father when he was young.

That sentence always brought a smile to Taji's face. A smile that could be seen as both a happy one and a sad one at the same time.

A smile that she's having as of this moment, as she said to Naruto; "But never mind that. I've fed Aomaru for you. The poor dog's sleeping right now."

Naruto's expression turned morose as he asked his mother; "How is he by the way?"

Taji sighed as she said; "He's eating well, that's for certain... But I'm afraid that his condition isn't getting better."

Aomaru. It was the name of the sickly dog that Naruto had taken from the Inuzuka's kennel.

Sickly since birth, it was said by Tsume, Kiba's mother, that the pup that was born as an albino wouldn't live for long, his body didn't develop well and that his life expectancy was just two months at best.

And it has now been three months since Naruto took him.

Despite the pup's sickness however, he seemed livelier whenever Naruto took some time to play with or just to be beside him. Before his condition became worse over the last few weeks, Aomaru had always responded well to Naruto and Taji.

But now it seemed that he could no longer do those things.

Naruto sighed as he wordlessly walked towards where the dog was located within the house.

Taji watched her son walking with a sad feeling in her heart. She knew that Naruto always had this intrinsic need to help those who cannot help themselves.

It was the main reason as to why he insisted on taking the dog home. Even when Tsume tried to discourage him, he remained adamant in his decision to try and help the dog.

_"Even if I can't help him, then at least I can give him a proper home to stay in for these few months. Give him some degree of happiness, you know?"_

She had shared a similar expression with Tsume when they heard what he said. The boy had a heart of gold, so to speak, and as mothers, seeing such a young child speak with such conviction like that was nothing short of bliss.

So Tsume had given the pup due to Naruto's reason for taking him, and she had also said that even if the pup were to die in the end of these next few months, it won't be because of his fault.

_"It'll be because it's his time. Sometimes, there are things that just can't be fixed."_

'And the best thing we can do is to move on with our lives.' Taji thought about what she had said to Naruto at that particular time.

After more than twenty minutes of waiting filled with silence, Taji decided to see what had transpired and went towards the room where Naruto had gone into.

And seeing him casting his head down, along with a seemingly unresponsive body of the little pup right in front of him, Taji knew immediately that Naruto had felt something. Something that he noticed about Aomaru, something that only he could know.

"...I can't hear his heartbeat anymore mom."

* * *

The first time losing someone that you really care about really hits hard to home.

Experiencing this for the first time ever since he could remember was something that was both valuable and poignant. Naruto understood that.

That sometimes, life was kind to some but not to others. And that sometimes, there are things that just could not be prevented.

'But maybe I could have prevented it.' Naruto thought as he looked over the grave that Aomaru had been buried on, completely made out of his own physical effort. "Maybe... I just haven't figured that particular thing out in time."

Revivification. It was Naruto's wish when he took Aomaru in, that the ability to revive him would come up during the time he took the pup into his care, and that he would be able to heal him of his afflictions.

However, it never came. In lieu of the power that he wanted, he instead got increased power levels of his previous ones.

He's not complaining, he's kind of glad that he's capable of more now. Kind of gleeful even, with the sheer possibility that he could do at the current moment, along with the fact that he could still get stronger.

'But with all these abilities, not one of them can't get me what I wanted.' Naruto thought before he sighed, 'Well, this just further cements the fact that it doesn't really work that way. So I guess... it wasn't a total loss.'

Shaking his head to make the sadness go away, he then looked over his surroundings.

The rolling green hills was the place that he had chosen as the location of Aomaru's burial. This place was not Hi no Kuni, which was packed with forests instead of meadows such as this.

It was a beautiful place that he had found when he discovered and subsequently mastered his ability to conquer the air like a bird.

Flight. Wingless flight, without any visible means that allowed him to stay suspended in the air or to move around so dextrously as if it were a natural thing for a human to do.

This place was located in the far-off land southeast of Elemental Nations, the land itself was a medium sized archipelago, mainly consisted of two large body of islands amidst a greater number of smaller islands surrounding them.

And these landscapes were something that could be said as the islands' trademark. The beauty of nature that felt a little bit different besides the forests and the oceans.

Naruto smiled as he took a whiff of the air, the smell of the grassland was quite a bliss, it could calm him as much as the breeze of the wind coming from the ocean could soothe him.

He took one last look over Aomaru's grave and said; "Goodbye. You've been a good dog."

Afterwards, he turned his head upwards and with a simple jump, he shot off into the sky towards his house in Konoha, Hi no Kuni. Thousands of miles apart.

The things that he could do... Even an experienced Shinobi with an impressive set of skills of his own would find Naruto as someone that could be appropriately called with the adjective 'super'.

That is, if that Shinobi were to see his ability.

The people who knew about this besides himself were his mother, Taji, and the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

The latter found out when Naruto deliberately showed it to him on his mother's behest. Hiruzen was quite intrigued and took him to the nearest training field. On his orders, eight dummies made out of wood were placed, forming a circle.

With only the Hokage and his mother as the observers, Naruto showed his prowess.

The maximum speed that he could achieve by moving on the ground was almost as fast as the maximum speed that he could achieve in the air. Whenever he exerted himself to his limit, his speed allowed him to break the sound barrier in one second. However, that was just the acceleration part, because he did not know how fast he could really go as of yet.

So when he's standing on the middle of the circle, he took a look at one of the dummies before charging with as much speed as he could muster, creating a slight booming noise due to the sudden displacement of air.

He planted his fist on the torso of the first dummy, obliterating it in the process due to his strength allowing his fist to bust through the one foot wide wood. Then with a swift movement to his right, he did the same with the second one, destroying to splinters with only a punch.

Then the third, then the fourth, then the fifth, and it went on until he reached the eighth one.

Which he decided to destroy by flying through it with a speed that exceeded his running one, and staying afloat afterwards out of childish glee and the desire to show off slightly.

While in retrospect he agreed that it was quite arrogant of him, Naruto had to admit that the sight of the third Hokage's expression that was filled with shock and befuddlement was quite entertaining. It helps that it was his first time showing his power to somebody else besides his mother.

Hiruzen then asked him why he had kept this side of him a secret. He knew about how he's always keeping himself at mediocre level during class, and how he never really stood out, not counting his advanced physical maturity compared to the other kids.

The answer was the need for normalcy. He explained that Itachi Uchiha, Satsuki's brother, was a prime example of a child prodigy, but due to that, he's always alone, rarely could one see him doing what a normal teenager would usually do, to him, it was always work work work. Even his own mother felt that her son was slightly estranged from his own family.

Naruto knew how powerful he was, and as such, he didn't feel any need to show it unless necessary. Holding himself back was an exercise in control, he had an intrinsic need to be a better man, and a better man would only use his power when the situation called for it to be used.

He could still recall the proud smile of the man that could be said as his surrogate grandfather, but behind it, he could see that he still wished Naruto to be more than what he had shown to others, to show them this power that he has.

All he could give was a promise. A promise that he would show this to the world sometime in the future.

And that seemed to be enough for the old man.

The old man entered his life when he reached the age of six, when he first entered the academy and subsequently treated him as if he were his own grandchild.

Such treatment confused him at first. When he asked for an explanation as to why the old Hokage acted like so, he answered...

_"I have helped your mother in taking care of you. Giving her the money that she needed to sustain your livelihood and so on."_

_"Really?"_

_"Yes. She works directly for me, didn't you know?"  
_

He didn't know. He knew that his mother worked at the Konoha hospital as the head nurse, but he had never expected her to also work under the direct orders of the Hokage.

But knowing that she's an ex-ANBU as well, Naruto rationalized that it must be something else regarding something of political importance in some way or form. Having her work as an ANBU written on her resume must've helped a lot.

Naruto found in Hiruzen a friendly grandfather figure, one that sought for his well-being and happiness. He had his quirks, but... 'Then again, who doesn't have at least one?' he asked rhetorically.

After nearly two and a half hours of traveling through the sky with him taking his time flying at a rather leisurely pace all the way from the archipelago to the Elemental Countries, Naruto found himself back in Konoha. A few hundred meters above the village, to be exact.

After a long flight, he always took time to observe the activity of the village before he would even think to land. There were two reasons: One, it allowed him to look the spot where he had the least probability in being seen by someone. And two, it felt kind of... refreshing, seeing something from an angle that no normal person would be able to reach.

Considering that he left the village before the sun was even beginning to show up from the east, it was no surprise that the villagers would begin their respective activities by the time he came back.

But as always, there's always a spot where he could land without being noticed. This time, it was a clear area surrounded by some trees and bushes nearby the Uchiha district.

When he landed, he took a moment to look at his surroundings, and when he deemed it safe enough to go out, he left.

Only, he didn't count to see the youngest of Mikoto's children right in front of him when he walked out, spending the morning time jogging.

Satsuki Uchiha was her name. The one and only daughter of Mikoto Uchiha, Itachi's little sister.

There was a time when she and Naruto were quite close, mostly due to the fact that she was once very eager to befriend him and he reciprocated the feeling. But that time had long passed since, and as she got new friends when she and him entered the academy, her friendship with Naruto waned over time.

Though they're still keeping in touch, they weren't as close as before.

So he turned away from Satsuki and walked away quietly.

But he didn't expect her to come to him after just several steps, she went so far as to touch his shoulder and say, "Naruto."

He turned to look at his friend, standing just a few inches shorter than himself, making her one of the tallest students of his age in the academy. Her long black hair was styled into a ponytail, and she wore a simple black shirt with white shorts.

It took Naruto a few moments before he could form a reply, "Hey Satsuki."

She huffed before she said; "I saw you just walking opposite of my direction after seeing me. Is that what friends do when they see each other? Walk away from them?" she said in a rhetorical manner.

"No of course not. Sorry, it's just that you were busy doing your own thing, I don't want to interrupt." Naruto said as an excuse.

"Don't worry about that, I was about to finish jogging anyway." she said as she wiped some sweat from her forehead. "So how have you been? I heard that Aomaru died yesterday."

"Yeah, he did." Naruto said as he nodded, "It was just his time. There's nothing that could change that."

Satsuki knew the reason why Naruto took the pup, always the good-hearted person that he was, he brought him to his house so that the pup could have an owner that would take care of him during the last few months of his life.

It worked, if she had to say it herself, the pup was happy before his timely death, she even played with the little thing once or twice whenever she came to Naruto's house.

"Are you okay?" she asked Naruto, knowing that it might've hit him quite hard.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me." Naruto said to assure her, "It'll pass. By the way, how have _you _been? I heard things don't exactly go well with your brother."

Satsuki sighed as she said; "He's... getting harder for us to understand." she began, "Ever since Shisui-san's death, Itachi-nii has been looked at with suspicion by the whole clan. But he's getting more and more distant from the rest of us, and it doesn't help matters... the only people that he's even talkative to are my family. But even dad doesn't have the same sentiment that he used to have for him now."

"Shisui... wasn't he Itachi's teammate? You told me that once, I think." Naruto said, "You told me that he killed himself. But why does it seem that your clan believed that he has something to do with his death?"

Satsuki sighed as she said; "Even before then, Itachi-nii's been acting odd... I just don't know what's wrong with him."

Naruto knew Satsuki as an extroverted, caring, and most of all, a very perceptive person. Perhaps almost as perceptive as he is despite his few lapses in judgment.

She knew that her brother had to have a reason for acting so distant and aloof over the past year. But what it was remained elusive to her. But, if she were to assume, she thought that it had something to do with the clan as a whole.

There was a time where Satsuki would only see warmth and care from her brother's eyes, but recently, all that she could see was cold apathy.

It hurts for her to see his eyes that way, and it hurts even more when she remembered that he wasn't always that way, but changed due to some circumstances that she had yet to know. And she wasn't sure she would like the reason if she happened to know.

"Do you suspect that there's something... sinister, abounds?" asked Naruto with a tone that indicated it was meant as a joke.

It made Satsuki smile a little, but he could see that she's still somewhat disturbed about her brother's attitude. "I hope not... My family's is beginning to divide as it is, there's no need for a larger conspiracy to take place behind everything."

Naruto touched her shoulder and squeezed it slightly, holding himself back to not accidentally hurt her, "I wish the best for your family Satsuki. I hope this will just become something that we can look back in the future and smile about. You know what they say about it's always the darkest before the dawn."

She smiled gratefully as she grasped the hand touching her shoulder, "Thanks..."

Naruto nodded before she pat her in the back, "Take care of yourself Satsuki." before he began to walk away.

After a few feet apart, she called him again, "Hey!"

Turning his head towards her, he said; "Yeah?"

"You know, we should meet again. What do you say we meet here again at about one o'clock? We could just play around the village like we used to if you want?"

He was about to refuse, to follow the unspoken rule about maintaining a safe distance from other people. But out on a whim, he decided to agree with the request, "Sure, why not?" he rhetorically asked.

Her smile widened as she said; "Great! I'll see you then.", and with that, she turned and walked away. And Naruto noticed that she's walking with a slightly apparent jaunt in her steps.

* * *

Arriving back at his house, Naruto announced; "I'm home!"

To which, Taji replied, "Welcome back! I'm making breakfast for both of us." she said from the kitchen, "Did you bury Aomaru like you told me yesterday?"

"Yeah!" Naruto replied as he entered the living room, "He's in a good resting place now. ...Don't know if anyone else could get there by themselves without my help though." he said after a second of contemplation.

Taji smiled as she replied with; "Well, you can always carry them, right?"

Naruto smiled sheepishly as he nodded, "Yeah I guess I can." he admitted, knowing that his mother's referring to his extraordinary strength, "Listen mom, I'm going to be with Satsuki later, ok?"

At this, Taji perked up. "Oh? What brought this up?" she asked, interested in how he suddenly decided to connect with his friend again after distancing himself from her for quite some time.

"She asked me." Naruto said as he shrugged and walked towards the kitchen, "Should I have said no? Maybe. But... I don't know, I felt that I should accept it instead of doing the opposite." he answered rather succinctly.

Taji smiled at that, "Maybe it's because deep down, you feel like you _need _to accept. For the sake of your friendship." she assumed.

Arriving at the kitchen, Taji saw Naruto smiling as well, "Maybe." he conceded, thinking that there might be some truth to that notion. "So what are we making today, mom?"

"We are making omelettes. Just go sit at the chair, it'll be done in a minute."

"I'll make my own." Naruto said as he took some of the key ingredients for the dish, "You already taught me how to make this mom, the least I could do is to make it myself so that you won't be too burdened."

Taji sighed as she procured a wistful smile, she rubbed Naruto's hair and said; "It's not a burden to do anything for you, Naruto. You're my son. Nothing about you is a burden." she then tapped her shoulder before grasping it, "But thank you for that... For thinking about helping when you can lend a hand. Never change that part of you Naruto. You hear me?"

Naruto nodded in affirmation and answered; "I will mom."

Taji then returned to what she was doing and said; "Well then. Let us make ourselves some breakfast, shall we?"

* * *

Satsuki was anxious. Though it's still a couple of hours apart until the appointed time that they've agreed on, she still felt somewhat agitated.

It was as if the clock just couldn't be fast enough to her liking.

"You seem troubled."

Hearing her father's voice, Satsuki was brought out of her reverie and made her say; "Oh. It's nothing father, I was just a bit distracted." she explained.

"Hm." was all that he said before he returned to what he was doing, mainly to continue eating his breakfast.

Currently, Satsuki and her family, sans her brother, was gathered at the dining table to eat breakfast. It was a traditional breakfast, with rices and miso soups, grilled fishes and the likes, somewhat unsurprising for a clan such as the Uchiha to have this kind of breakfast as being one of the so-called 'high-class' clans in Konoha along with the Hyuuga, with whom they shared their prickly, self-righteous attitude.

Her mother was sitting in the chair located right in front of her seat, while her father is seated on the upper center part of the table, showing his role as the head of the family.

Fugaku was the aloof, distant father who only wanted, or to be more exact, _expected_ his children to be the best in everything while couldn't less care to what they _actually_ want.

While in contrast, Mikoto, the woman whom Satsuki got her look from, was the warm, loving, though sometimes, a somewhat strict, mother with whom Satsuki can share her thoughts and feelings to.

To add, she's also quite perceptive, and so she could see that her daughter looked as if her mind was being preoccupied by something.

Knowing Fugaku's aloof attitude however, Mikoto assumed that whatever she's thinking about, it's not something that could be shared with her father. So she opted to wait. Thinking that perhaps she would be more compliant with her mother.

"Thank you for the meal." Satsuki said as she clasped her hand together. Shortly afterwards, she stood up and left the dining table and walked towards the house's garden.

She felt the need to burn off the nervousness and agitation by exerting herself physically.

Meaning, she went to the garden to practice her combat skill. She began with two roundhouse kicks performed consecutively with each of her two legs, followed by a couple of punches and then went back to performing kicks again.

So focused she was on what she was doing, she barely heard the sound of someone's footsteps approaching until the person said; "You're really nervous Satsuki."

Satsuki stopped and turned towards the sound of her mother's voice, and she found her looking at her with a degree of interest and amusement. "W-what do you mean? I'm not nervous." Satsuki replied, rather abashed by the fact that her mother could see through her.

When Satsuki continued practicing her techniques again, Mikoto chuckled, "Oh come now Satsuki. You always do this routine whenever you feel like something's bothering you. It's clear that you're agitated by something. Would you like to tell me what it is?"

Satsuki performed a few quick kicks and punches before she answered; "It's nothing, mom. Really..."

"Mhmm~, Liar." Mikoto said with a wry smile, amused by her daughter's reaction, "C'mon, you can tell me, can't you?"

After a moment, Satsuki sighed before she decided to answer what's making her agitated, "I'm meeting Naruto this afternoon." she said without making an eye contact with Mikoto.

Mikoto raised her eyebrows, and a moment later, she procured a wide smile, "Oh. Well, now I know why you're reluctant to talk about it in front of your father." she remarked.

When she first heard that Naruto, Kushina's son, was going to be given to Kanzaki Taji to be taken care of, Mikoto was quite shocked. Mostly due to the fact that Kushina had told her about the son's godfather, Jiraiya of the Sannin, and therefore, she had thought that Naruto would be cared for by him instead of somebody else.

Though she was willing, the policy of her clan didn't exactly allow her to do so. But being Kushina's friend, she felt the need to ensure that Naruto was in good hands, so she came to Taji's residence to evaluate her.

And judging by what she had seen, her capability to nurse Naruto and her genuine willingness to become a parent to Naruto, Mikoto felt that Taji could be trusted. But Mikoto had said to her that she would give help whenever necessary, and all that Taji needed to do was to ask.

She had made it clear to Taji that Naruto was as important to her as her friend once was. After all, with Kushina's death, the boy's remaining blood relatives were next to none, what with the Uzumaki clan scattered, presumably long gone, and Uzushiogakure from which they hailed destroyed and flattened to the ground by invaders.

The boy was the last of his kind, something that he didn't know as of yet. Perhaps for the better, as despite his shocking precocious maturity, such a thing was not something that he's prepared yet. At least, that's what she thought.

His maturity was something that was also shared by someone of his age, namely, her daughter, Satsuki.

Though not to the same degree, she could be said as his equivalent in his capability to think beyond the limit of an 8-year old child.

Which was the reason why she immediately warmed up to him when they first met. It helped that it was a friendly first meeting where she and him ended up playing around the village from noon until sunset.

Though Mikoto was happy that her daughter and Kushina's son got along together just fine, Fugaku wasn't very fond of Naruto, saying that she's better be focusing on improving her academic rank instead of playing around with boys.

Mikoto assured Satsuki that her father was an overprotective kind. That he would be somewhat judgmental if it's concerning boys who are close to her.

So Satsuki, after knowing the reason why her father seemed to hate Naruto, decided to not talk too much about the you-know-who in question, which would explain why she lied about not being nervous.

After all, due to her father encouraging her to find more friends other than Naruto, they weren't as close as they were before. There were many offers that she made before this one, but all of them were rejected. He did it politely, but it didn't lessen the pain caused by the rejection.

"Yeah..." Satsuki said as she stopped practicing her moves altogether. "Please don't tell father." she half-pleaded, half-asked.

"I won't." Mikoto said with a smile, "What are you two planning to do this afternoon by the way?" she asked Satsuki.

"...We'll just play around the village. You know, like we used to." Satsuki answered as she placed her hand on her hip, "Nothing really complex, just the two of us, running around the village, talking about stuff, making up games, things like that."

"I see." said Mikoto, "Have you thought about what you're going to tell your father?" she asked her daughter next.

"I'm going to tell him that I'm gonna hang out with my friends." Satsuki said, "But not very detailed for him to check on some things, like who they are, where we're going." she explained further.

"...Just don't take too long, okay? Your father could get suspicious."

"I know the drill mom." Satsuki said with a smirk, "Don't worry, I don't think we will be taking too much time."

* * *

It was at precisely one p.m. in the afternoon, and Naruto had been standing outside of the gates leading to the Uchiha district for about twenty minutes, waiting for Satsuki to come.

Currently, Naruto was leaning his back against the wall and folded his arms, patiently waiting as some members of the Uchiha clan passed by him without even spending a glance.

No needless, overblown attention of the people directed at him. Just the way he liked it. Though there were some who noticed, most of them young girls, who saw him then they either waved at him or abruptly leave the area as if they forgot something.

'Hm. Interesting...' he thought to himself.

After a while, Satsuki finally arrived from the district, she looked left and right before finding Naruto leaning against the wall, "Hey." she greeted with a smile.

"Hey." Naruto replied back, seeing Satsuki wearing a different set of clothing, a blue short-sleeved shirt, a pair of training pants and a pair of sandals. Feeling that he needed to say something, he said; "You look like you're anxious about something."

With the sweats trailing down from her forehead to her chin, one would be forgiven for thinking that she had been spending the last few minutes jogging.

"W-what? No way, I'm fine." she said as she waved her hand dismissively. She couldn't tell him that she had spent the last forty minutes practicing her combat moves just to burn off the nervousness. "Just fine. ...yeah... Anyway, ready to go?" she asked him.

Naruto nodded as he put his hands on the pockets of his pants and dispatching himself from the wall. "Yeah. Let's go."

Then, as the two of them began to walk side by side, Naruto said; "By the way, where do you want to go today?"

"Oh for now? Let's just walk around the village, _then _we'll find something specific to do." she said before she grinned, "But don't worry, I've got some things that I'd like to try."

Seeing her mischievous expression, Naruto couldn't help but to feel apprehensive and curious at the same time.

And he found himself looking forward to what she would do despite his initial hesitance on agreeing to her request.

'This day might turn to be an interesting one after all...'

* * *

'Okay, this might be a little overboard.' Naruto thought before he turned to his partner-in-crime and said; "Do we really want the whole chuunin guard to chase us?"

"It'll be an incentive for him to work harder." Satsuki replied with a smirk, "Sleeping on duty is not acceptable as Itachi-nii would say."

"But he's an ANBU Captain, this guy is a Chuunin, one of the members of your clan's Military Police even, I think it's a bit different."

"Oh let's worry over that later and just do this shall we?"

Naruto sighed before he relented, "Alright..."

* * *

"Come back here you little rascals!"

Despite what they did, Naruto found himself smiling as he and Satsuki ran away from the then-sleeping chuunin whose face they had powdered and painted with black ink to resemble a kabuki mask.

"This is quite fun." Naruto said as he turned to the grinning girl beside him.

"See, what did I tell you?" she asked rhetorically.

"So what other dastardly plans have you concocted?" Naruto asked with a slight jesting tone of voice, somewhat anticipating what they would do next.

* * *

"Get them! They went that way!"

"Grrr! When I get my hands on them I'll kill 'em!"

"Where did they go?!"

"How the hell did we lose them?!"

"Get the two troublemakers! We can't let them go unpunished!"

...

"You are seriously becoming a bad influence on me." said Naruto the girl in front of him with a smirk on his face.

* * *

The sun had already set long before Naruto and Satsuki could be found walking back towards the Uchiha district of Konoha, both of them smiling like 'a couple of loonies in love', which was what a cynical person would say.

Seeing her smiling was quite... refreshing, to say the very least. After spending their time walking around the village, doing things such as exploring areas that they shouldn't be able to enter, escaping the Chuunins whom they have pranked, and perform acrobatic stunt in the rooftops.

All of it were Satsuki's idea. And she also suggested that they wear masks that hide their hair and face with a pair of masks and long pieces of cloths along with slightly changing their voice so that they won't be recognized if they're able to escape.

"Since when did you turn into a prankster?" asked Naruto, both amused and bewildered.

"Oh that was just a bit of a harmless fun. Giving a little of that here and there doesn't instantly turn me into a prankster you know." Satsuki said with a wry smile.

"Still... you really surprised me there. I thought that we'll just play around with the others and then eat some dango or takoyaki. But your way is fun too." Naruto remarked, "Not really a really usual way of passing time, but it works." he said with a wide grin.

"I knew you had a mischievous side to you, Naruto." Satsuki said, responding to his grin with one of her own. "I mean, the way you taunt that one chuunin, _'How embarrassing! For an adult guy like you to fail in catching a pair of kids! You should be training for Chuunin exam again! The last one might've been a flunk!'_ That one kind of surprised me."

The blonde boy rubbed the back of his head in slight embarrassment, maybe it was because he had been in the heat of the moment, but pranking people had really brought out the playful but somewhat mean side of himself. "I still think that was unnecessary. He did end up pushing himself to exhaustion in trying to catch us."

"Don't worry about it. It's all in good fun." Satsuki assured him.

As they found themselves in front of the gate leading to the district where her clan dwelled, Satsuki was suddenly reminded of the fact that she had been with Naruto for quite a long time. 'Oh no... this is bad...!' she thought.

Naruto saw Satsuki's expression changing from gleefully smiling to one filled with fear, judging by the shrinking of the pupils, the progressively paler skin tone, and slight sweat trailing down from her forehead. "Is something wrong?" he asked her.

"H-huh? Oh, it's... um..." she trailed off, as if unsure as to what she should say. A lie was the most viable option, but it was no longer one when Naruto said...

"...It's not because we've been playing for hours on end until nightfall is it?" Naruto said.

'Damn, I forgot about his keen mind at times like this.' she thought, "Somewhat... yeah." she answered hesitantly.

"Your parents set a curfew for you?" he asked, and when Satsuki nodded, he sighed, "Well... Is there anything I can do to help? I could try coming with you to explain things to your parents."

"No, that..." She was about to reject, but Naruto wouldn't have any of it.

"I'll come and help you. Explain things to your parents. And if it doesn't work, well at least your parents would have two people to yell at." he said with a wry smile.

Always the noble knight. So quickly he rebuffed her rejection so that he could help her in some way or form. It made her smile a little, but she then said; "What about your mother? Won't she be worried?"

"Compared to my mom, your father is a lot more strict. I think he's not going to be very lenient." Naruto said, "More reason for me to go with you. After all, it isn't completely your fault that you got home so late."

"...Yeah..." she said as she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "I guess... I was just..."

After a few seconds without any reply, Naruto asked, "Was just what?"

"...Nothing. Let's go, yeah?" she deflected the question as she entered the Uchiha district, with Naruto following her closely from behind before he moved to her side.

'I was just hoping that my father could see you in a better image... This would just make it worse...' she thought, 'Still... he's worrying about me... That alone is... enough, I suppose.'

* * *

After passing by the houses of many other Uchihas, They finally arrived at Satsuki's parents' house.

"...This is weird."

"What?" asked Naruto.

"My father's not here. He's usually here if I come home late without telling him first." she said, "It's just not like him to not do that now..."

"Maybe there's something else going on..." Naruto assumed.

"What do you mean?"

As a response, Naruto closed his eyes and focused his hearing to the point where he could determine the situation within the house without actually present. He could hear some voices, a male voice with deep, bass voice and a woman's voice, presumably Fugaku and Mikoto.

But as he focused even more, it was clear that Satsuki's parents were facing someone else within the room that they're occupying. Fugaku was currently berating this person, and...

...

...Oh.

Naruto opened his eyes and looked towards Satsuki, his face betrayed his worry over her. The person in question saw this, and so she asked him; "What's wrong?"

"...You know, it _is _a little weird that your father's not here." Naruto said instead of answering her question, "If I have to guess... it might be because he's currently being occupied by something. Something that might require his full attention."

"...Maybe." Satsuki agreed after a moment of contemplation, "But what?"

"Let's find out." Naruto said as he walked towards the door leading to the interior of the house.

However, before he could open it himself, it was opened for him by someone else. Someone that he and she had known for... quite a long time now.

Itachi Uchiha was his name. Satsuki's older brother, the prodigy of the Uchiha clan who achieved the rank of Anbu Captain when others of his age had just spent a year as a fresh genin from the Academy.

Despite all that he had achieved however, he was a persona that could not be easily understood. His clan thought of him as a wild card, someone who could not be ascertained in terms of personality.

An enigma with extensive talents and abilities whose mind could not be predicted. The Uchiha were both glad and afraid of this individual. Because as much as they were a clan, he was also as much of an anomaly. All that they could do was to hope that their goals and ideals aligned with his.

If not, well...

"Satsuki. Naruto." said Itachi when his gaze landed upon the two, "You two are late, aren't you?" he asked without any change in his expression or even a little intonation in his tone of voice.

"Yeah, we've been playing for quite a while." Answered Naruto instead of Satsuki, "I'm here with her to explain to her father that it wasn't her fault that we took too much time playing around."

"Yes. Father can be quite strict most of the time." Itachi said without any humor in his voice. "Why don't you go inside, I am about to leave anyway."

"Where are you going, Itachi-Nii?" asked his younger sister.

This time, Itachi procured a smile. Though it was a rather melancholic smile, and said; "To where I'm needed." he stated it rather simple before he walked away from the house, with Naruto and Satsuki staring at his retreating back.

Naruto then grabbed Satsuki's elbow to catch her attention and said; "Come on. We can't keep your parents waiting even more than this."

Satsuki noticed that Naruto was a little bit forceful and apprehensive about something that she had yet to know. But she mentally agreed that she needed to explain to her father why she came home so late.

After knocking the door, Naruto entered the house, followed closely by Satsuki, "Mom? Dad? Sorry I'm late!"

After a moment, Mikoto came out of the living room, "Welcome home." she said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes, and her tone of voice was absent of any mirth. Something that did not escape Satsuki's and Naruto's attentions.

"Is something wrong?" Satsuki asked.

Mikto sighed before she said; "No. Not at all. Come on inside." she said as she urged Satsuki to come, she then looked at Naruto, and this time, she procured a real smile, "So did you two have fun?" she asked him.

"We did." Naruto answered, "It was a lot of fun. Thanks for that by the way, Satsuki."

Mikoto's daughter nodded as she procured a wide smile, "Aw it's nothing. ...I had a lot of fun too you know." she said rather abashedly for inexplicable reasons.

"But you told me that it's not going to be long." Mikoto reminded her daughter in a playful tone, "What exactly did you both do, if I may ask?" she asked in a manner similar to teasing.

"Nothing much. We were just running around villages, doing things and talking about certain subjects that we both like." Naruto answered. "I'm really sorry for this. We just lost track of time, and it wasn't really Satsuki's fault, it's-"

"It's _our _fault." Satsuki insisted, feeling that Naruto was about to cast the blame on himself, "Both of us got too carried away, it's not fully his fault."

Before Mikoto could speak further, Fugaku came out of the living room, he spared a glance to Satsuki and Naruto which lasted a few seconds before he walked away without a word.

"...Father?" she asked to Fugaku's retreating back, knowing how strange it was for him to not even provide a remark at her lateness. "...Mom, what's going on? Is he so mad at me that he doesn't even want to speak to me?" she asked.

Mikoto touched her daughter's shoulders and said; "No. It's not, it's... He's angry about something else.", she said, "It's not about you, Satsuki. Don't worry." she said soothingly as she patted her head.

Naruto looked at Mikoto and her daughter and couldn't help but to feel a little bit awkward. Mostly due to the fact that he had heard what had transpired in the living room between Fugaku, Mikoto and Itachi.

He knew that what they had been speaking about was not for her ears to hear. In fact, it was not for _his _ears either.

A simple moment of curiosity had been the cause for this unwanted knowledge that he now kept. There were no reason for him to know that Itachi's relationship with his parents and his clan had gone beyond 'sour', it had reached the point where even his father, the one who had been treating him more favorably than Satsuki, could no longer trust him, just like his fellow clansmen.

Naruto knew that he had to keep this a secret. Even from _her. _At the very least, until this whole situation is resolved or, at worst, blow out of proportion.

He hoped that it would be the former. But either way, he didn't like this one bit.

Keeping a secret about himself from other people was one thing. But keeping a secret that a certain person shouldn't know? Especially one that had the potential to irrevocably destroy her life? A whole 'nother story.

...

But if he can't tell her, then maybe...

"Mikoto-san." Naruto said.

"Yes Naruto?" she asked.

"...May I request a conversation? A private one?" he asked formally.

The way he asked made Mikoto chuckle slightly and Satsuki to arch her eyebrows as she looked at Naruto, "What do you want to talk about Naruto-kun?" she asked.

"Something important. Please?" he half-asked, half-pleaded.

Mikoto felt as if the boy had something truly important to talk about. His expression showed at least that much. She procured a smile as she said; "Very well. Satsuki, go to your room, okay? Your father's not mad at you, he's just preoccupied by something right now. If you want to apologize, do it in the morning, okay?"

"...Alright." Satsuki conceded before she walked towards her room, located on the second floor of the house.

After she saw Satsuki had truly left, she turned to Naruto, "Now what do you want to talk about Naruto-kun?"

Mikoto then saw Naruto focusing his sight on the ceiling instead of answering her question, after a moment, he turned to her and said, "Not here Mikoto-san. Maybe we should go outside."

* * *

Though she ended up complying to his request, Mikoto had yet to understand the reason why he asked her to talk in private. 'He's acting rather strange... I wonder what he wants to talk about?'

After stopping at a nearby alley, Naruto turned to Mikoto. He gazed at her for a while before he turned his head away slightly and muttered, "Alright... So... Shoot, how should I start this?"

Seeing him so confused and worried, Mikoto said; "Take your time Naruto." she assured him with a smile.

"No." he quickly said, "It's better if I do this quick." he said with a serious tone, a tone of voice one could rarely hear from a child, if not never. He took a deep breath before he said, "Let's begin with this then... There is a side of me that only few people know about, Mikoto-san."

Mikoto was amused, he was talking as if he were a main character in a mystery novel, thinking that this was a game of some sort, she decided to play along, "Oh really? Well now, and here I thought I have you all figured out."

"...I'm serious Mikoto-san." Naruto said, knowing that it was a tease, "Only my mother and the Hokage knows about this. And now I'm going to show it to you as well."

"Really? Then by all means." she said, as if challenging him.

He then turned his head towards a particular house, and said to Mikoto without even looking to her, "That house there. Who does it belong to?"

Confused, Mikoto then asked, "What do you mean?"

"Please, answer the question Mikoto-san."

"...Well, that's the house of Yukimura Uchiha, why do you-"

"A mother of two children, one boy, one girl, the girl's older than the boy. Currently, the children are sleeping in their respective rooms located at the second floor, one near the stairs on the back of the house is occupied by the older sister and one on the front side of the house is occupied by the little brother, while Yukimura-san is making herself a supper. A Chazuke, to be exact. And her husband is... nowhere to be found within the house."

"...How do you know that?" Mikoto asked with wide eyes, shocked that the boy knew that Yukimura had two children when his interaction with her clan was limited to her and Satsuki along with Itachi some of the time.

Not to mention, the details of her house and what she was doing... How the hell could he know that?

"...I have a better eyesight compared to most people." Naruto stated, which was a severe case of understatement, "And I have a better hearing too. For example, there's a pair of husband and wife on that house over there who are arguing about..." He frowned as he finished with; "About whether or not they should proceed with the attempt to coup. The man is all for it, but his wife was reluctant to go along with it."

He turned to look at Mikoto, who could only gape in shock, but after a second, she said; "...T-this... H-how do you... could...?"

"I'm different than most people, Mikoto-san. Where a kid my age can change their appearance and replace their position with a log or other objects by using handseals, I can do things that only most people could dream of." Naruto stated, "...And needless to say, I know about Itachi-san's current standing with his own clan. Your argument a while ago, before Satsuki and I came along? I heard it all."

"...You..." Mikoto wasn't sure as to what she should say or do. Here, in front of her, was this boy, who knew about the Uchiha clan's plan to overthrow the current government of Konoha, and about Itachi's allegiance, whom Mikoto and Fugaku had decided to keep as a secret from their own clan out of their love for their child and risking the coup d'etat's failure by not outright killing him.

But the shock was due to how he obtained said information. Such powers were unheard of in the world.

"If it means something, I didn't want to obtain such information at that time." Naruto said. "But now that I know... can I ask just why are you doing this?"

"...We felt the need to. We have been belittled and scrutinized by Konoha's government for over eight years just because of a suspicion." Mikoto said, openly confessing, as her expression turned from anger to somber, "Though if it makes a difference, I no longer believe in the cause. I _hate _what it has done to our family." she said as she gritted her teeth.

While his mind was pondering about the words 'belittled', 'scrutinized', 'eight years', and 'just because of a suspicion', Naruto asked, "Then why do this? Why not just stop it? Why can't you solve this peacefully?"

"Because I am a part of the minority who couldn't even be brave enough to speak out loud." Mikoto said as tears began to form, "Though my husband also loves Itachi, he firmly believes that the coup will make things better. But he doesn't know Itachi like I do.

"He's a sensitive child. Always has been. He hates conflict and violence. And he's intelligent enough to know the repercussions of the coup if it were to really happen."

"...Which is?" asked Naruto.

"...War. Things like rebellion would cause instability. And the relations between the Countries are at best, strained. This coup will give the push needed for a larger scale of conflict to happen again." Mikoto explained, "I've tried to explain this to Fugaku, but he wouldn't even listen to it. To him, pride always triumphs over reason."

Seeing Mikoto speaking with so much rancor, directed at her husband no less, was quite shocking to Naruto as she had always been nothing less than a loving, caring woman in his eyes.

But then again, he had never seen the private life of Satsuki's family before. And that she was also a Kunoichi, which pretty much guaranteed that she would have a side that no one, save for a few close acquaintances, had seen before.

"...But it's too late to make a difference now. Too late to do anything. All I could do is to wait for the inevitable end of this situation." Mikoto said despondently before she looked at Naruto, "Is that all you wanted to ask, Naruto-kun? Or was there something else?" she asked.

"...Look, Mikoto-san..." he began, "The reason I asked you to talk privately was because I'm worried for Satsuki." he stated, "She has no idea about _any_ of this, am I right?"

Mikoto nodded, "Yes. She's too young to know any of this. But why does this make you worried for her?"

"...Sooner or later, things will come to a head with your clan and Itachi, won't it?" Naruto asked rhetorically, "And when that happens, where will she stand? And when it's over, will she be able to live a normal life again? If at all? That's what I'm worried about."

'...So he could also see beyond what is visible.' Mikoto thought, 'Kushina would've been so proud of you, Naruto-kun.'

"...She will be safe. Don't worry about her, Naruto-kun. She won't become a collateral damage. I will _not _let her become that." she said vigorously before she sighed and finished with; "Now, it's getting late. While I'm curious about your power... I think Taji is worried sick, you should go home."

Naruto sighed, but before he turned to leave, he said; "Promise me that Satsuki will be safe."

Mikoto smiled as she said, "I promise."

"Good... if you can see this as an assurance, when things go from bad to worse, Mikoto-san, I'll try and help as best as I could. You have my word on that." said the young Naruto, "Best of luck to you. And uh... goodbye." Naruto said before he turned away...

And disappeared right before her eyes. His disappearance was followed by a gust of wind and a slight booming noise that indicated a sudden displacement of an object due to its high velocity.

Mikoto could barely see his movement, what, with him moving so fast that his movements became a blur to her eyes and all, reminiscent of his father's trademark technique.

The Uchiha matriarch couldn't help but to feel slightly impressed by Naruto, the boy's 'hidden' depths were not completely missed by her, but the extent of it was something that she didn't expect.

Not only he was precociously intelligent, mature, and noble for a boy of his age, but what he can do... Based on the few that she had seen, it was enough for her to see that Kushina's son was beginning to grow up to be someone whose potential could very well tip the balance of the world.

'...Too bad that I might not be able to see him again after this.'

* * *

Inside her room, one Satsuki Uchiha could be found thinking, to be exact, she was trying to deduce what had been going on.

Her father's reaction, her mother's saddened, solemn expression, her brother's strange and cryptic behavior, and Naruto's equally strange behavior were the factors that she's adding up and then processed logically to create an assumption that's quite close to the truth.

And the closest thing to the truth that she could think of was that her brother and her parents no longer see eye to eye on certain matters. And that Naruto knew about this somehow.

'Is that why he wanted to talk with mom?' she wondered, 'Is it because he knew? But for how long?'

The thought that Naruto would keep such a secret was something that she couldn't possibly think of, even in her wildest of dreams involving him, 'No, no, there's got to be another reason... He won't keep such a secret from me. ...Or is that why he always seem so distant these days?'

As numerous presumptions began to fill her head, Satsuki began to feel more and more scared and anxious, as she realized that there was indeed something going on behind the scenes.

There was a reason for her family's divide, there was a reason for Itachi's increasing emotional distance between them, there was a reason why her brother was treated with suspicion and harshness by his fellow clansmen.

And it was all a part of a great conspiracy.

'Is it really the reason why? There's something going on that I don't know about and everyone else knows? What exactly is going on here?' she thought as she clenched her eyes shut.

Numerous questions, and not a single answers that could soothe her, Satsuki felt so afraid, her mind filled with doubt, and in her current situation, she involuntarily did something that she didn't mean to do...

Hearing a faint humming noise, she opened her eyes, and when the noise persisted, she turned to look at her hand...

And saw that it was covered in partly transparent, purple-colored energy that seemed to fluctuate, unable to take a proper shape and so it looked somewhat like a plasmic substance that constantly expanded and shrunk every few seconds in a rhythmical manner.

"...Oh no... No, it's happening again, damn it!" she whispered out.

There were many reasons why she found physical exertions as a good method to burn off her nervousness, the main reason was to prevent her 'symptoms' from materializing.

No one else but herself knew about this symptom of hers, every time she felt anxious, nervous, anger, basically, bouts of extreme emotions, her body produced the pulses of energy that seemed harmless, but nevertheless freaked her out whenever it materialized.

Clenching her fist and her eyes, Satsuki concentrated on forcing her body to quell the energy output, a method that often time worked.

And after a few seconds, she managed to stop the constant streams of energy, and the humming noise also stopped, making her significantly calmer.

But despite that, Satsuki still felt uneasy at the current problem that's plaguing her family. The presumed conspiracy, looming over her and her family and threatening the life that they had been living for quite a while.

"I don't like this... not one bit."

* * *

**To be continued...**

* * *

So... yeah. The Uchiha Massacre arc.

However, it's not so much of an arc about its prevention as it is an arc about its inevitable conclusion. It's in the last stage of the rebellion, and frankly, there's no hope for a reconciliation or compromise for both sides, even if Naruto intervenes in the affair.

However, to a degree, he already changed two things about the aftermath of the doomed rebellion.

See you at the next chapter to know what are the things that he has changed.

P.S.: By the way... despite their chronological age, the superhumans who are _born _with their superpowers like Naruto and Satsuki will have a higher growth rate in both physical and mental sense compared to normal humans and Shinobi. This will be an important point later on in the story.

Now, while there are those who are _born _with their superpowers, there will be some whose superpowers are _given_, meaning, they received their respective powers when they are at some stage of their lives. An example of this type of superhuman will also be shown later.

That's all for now folks.


	3. Troubled Childhood 2

**Disclaimer:**I don't own Naruto, it's Masashi Kishimoto's.

* * *

**Chapter 3:Troubled Childhood 2  
**

* * *

Inside the Uchiha district, there was a small pond.

This place was the spot where Fugaku usually brought his son when he was younger than now to practice the trademark jutsu of the Uchiha clan, the Great Fireball Technique (Goukakyuu no Jutsu), which was considered as a coming of age rite passage for the clan.

While Itachi had already passed the rite with flying colors at an early age, Satsuki had yet to master the technique, and therefore, she was not considered as a proper, adult Uchiha.

Like many Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, the Great Fireball Technique could only be performed by performing a set of specific handseals and depending on the amount of chakra that one used, the size of the fireball could either be as small as a candle, or big enough to engulf a whole room.

Fugaku's daughter had been trying to master the technique ever since her first failed attempt, but to this day, she hadn't been very successful.

But there was no reason for her to give up.

And that was the reason why she was there now, in the morning after a sleepless night she had spent before.

Though it was said that a growing child should not have a short sleep hour time for fear of it stunting the child's growth, Satsuki felt restless due to the fact that she can't stop thinking about the presumed conspiracy within her own family and clan.

The more she tried to get her mind off of it and think about something else, her mind would always return to it, senselessly and needlessly making her constantly worried over things that might not be true.

It was a psychosis of a sort, one that, unbeknownst to her, was shared by nearly all of the other members of her clan. Something that made their brain wired in a certain way that made them more susceptible to descend into madness if their mind was affected by a scarring mental trauma.

To calm her mind, she had always resorted to physical exertions, but due to her being cooped up in her room the whole night without any physical exertions to calm her mind and the constant self-control to not go outside at night out of fear that her father might notice her leaving, she went out at dawn to jog, just like she always used to.

The lack of sleep was surprisingly without any detrimental effects to her mind or body. She found that as slightly strange, but something that she didn't have any complaints about.

Because it helped maintaining her capability to concentrate.

She took a deep breath before she performed the handseals, 'Horse, Tiger, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger...' keeping the last hand seal, she tilted back and puffed her cheeks before she blew out the air from her mouth...

'Katon: Goukyakuu no Jutsu!'

And then she puffed out a small, red fire that couldn't even fully melt a candle. Just like she always did.

Seeing the pathetic fire, Satsuki couldn't help but to feel a little annoyed, she did it right, she also had tried to muster every last bit of her chakra to create the biggest fire that she could make, but why did the fire look so underwhelming?

"It's always like this... What am I doing wrong?"

Despite following the procedure down to the very last detail, she could hardly make an impressive flame that would suit the name of the technique. She's quite a stickler for the rules, so she was very frustrated to not be able to perform the technique despite her adherence to the steps that should've allowed her to create a large flame.

However, despite of that, there were some... exceptions. The amount of chakra that she stored in her body was not the problem, since it was said that she had quite a lot, she had more chakra than the chakra accumulated by three average children of her age.

So she had assumed that it was not because she didn't have enough chakra, it was because she had a hard time controlling it.

But even that couldn't satisfyingly explain why she was unable to perform the technique.

So she had had an epiphany, she attempted to perform the technique _without _the handseals, just the molding of the chakra to give the result she needed.

And the result had been...

"..."

Wordlessly, she turned her head around, as if wanting to know whether someone was nearby or not. When she found that there were none, she then curled her hands into fists, leaned her back slightly and puffed her cheeks while she molded and focus the stream of chakra to her mouth.

And this time, when she opened her mouth, a great flame burst out from within, a flame that could engulf the whole pond. A flame that was worthy of the name of Great Fireball Technique.

However, the flame was unusual, because it shined with a dark shade of purple. The same shade of purple of that the energy from her 'symptoms' had whenever it occurred. Indicating that her 'symptoms' influenced her chakra somewhat.

As the flame died down, she thought, '...Three attempts in performing it without handseals... And three successes... That confirms it then, I _am_ different.'

The moment she figured out that she could perform it without handseals but created a different-looking flame, Satsuki knew that she was indeed different from her friends. She was unique to say the least. And a freak, to say it derogatorily.

Before this one attempt, she had performed two attempts at a handseal-less Great Fireball Technique, and both of the attempts was successful, but both times, she produced a big purple flame instead of the normal red one.

That was when she connected the dots between her symptoms and the strange flame. Along with the fact that her 'symptoms', while seemingly harmless, affected her in a way that would be impossible to be known if she weren't performing a Jutsu or having bouts of uncontrollable, extreme emotions.

In a way, she'd always failed whenever she followed the steps word for word, but not when she purposely missed the required handseals and just focusing on molding her chakra.

While the physical difference might only be residing in the color of the flame, there was no telling what her symptoms had done to her body in general. But she knew that emotions, especially the more extreme ones, were the catalyst that triggered her symptoms to materialize.

And due to this, she had been, unconsciously, pulling herself away from Naruto. A decision made by the presumption that he would find her condition as strange, freakishly so, to the point where he would draw himself away from her.

Though Satsuki realized soon afterwards that it was stupid of her to think like that, by the time she decided to take it back, the damage had already been done. The period in which she drew herself away from him lasted for a week and a half, and getting the message that she had sent and ended up regretting, Naruto reciprocated the gesture with his own.

Even though their relationship didn't go 'sour' by any means, it _had _become rather strained.

And she's hoping that their yesterday's outing with him was good enough start to rebuild what was inadvertently lost.

'It was stupid of me anyway... Why would I think that he would reject me? He's not like the others. He won't reject me just because of this.' the self-assurance made her smile a little, and it somewhat brought back some degree of happiness and replacing the somber mood that she had been having for the past few hours.

She then decided to leave the pond as the sun began to fully show up. But not before she looked over her surroundings once again to see that there really was no one there. And after a second or two, she left.

* * *

Early morning. Naruto always loved this particular time of day. Particularly when he's in Konoha, where the calming scent of the trees and the soft breeze were really brought forth at that time of day.

He had woken up for a couple of minutes after a few hours of sleeping following the little conversation she had with one Mikoto Uchiha, and now he's standing at the rooftop of the house, looking over the parts of the village that could be seen from the vantage point.

Coming home quite late at night, he ended up being lectured by his mother, which he knew was coming so he had been prepared to take it. After all, he did cause Satsuki to come home late.

However, he didn't divulge the little talk between him and Satsuki's mother. He couldn't even think of how to explain to her mother that one of the prominent clans in Konoha was planning to overthrow its current ruling government.

All he told her was that he was sorry and that he won't do it again.

At least, not without telling her that he would be home late firsthand. And not when he had somebody else with him.

Taji knew that Naruto was more than capable of taking care of himself. But if this situation were to happen again to him, he must not let his friends be taken along. Because _they _also had somebody worrying about them back in their respective homes.

_"You must be responsible for your own safety as much as you must be responsible for the safety of others around you. Especially with what you are capable of, Naruto." _was what she had said to him. _"If you can be responsible in small things, then anyone, especially me, can trust you with the bigger ones."_

_"Can you do that, Naruto?"_

She always knew the right words to say, his mother. Always knew what words would resonate within his very being.

But the responsibility for the safety of others also came with a question: What if he's unable to protect everyone?

And in the current situation between the Uchiha and Konoha, it's apparent to Naruto that the 'inevitable end' that Mikoto had spoken of the night before might be about her inevitable death. Along with the death of the Uchiha clan as a whole.

Genocide. A mass murder performed on a particular group of people, usually a group of certain ethnicity. A whole clan could fit into that category as well.

'And Itachi is also involved in the center of this... But if he's on the side of the opposition, then... would he be ordered to kill his whole clan?'

The thought was somewhat scary. But considering that he's now known by his parents as a mole for the village, Itachi might be ordered by his superiors to quickly 'take care' of his own family and clan.

Where would Satsuki, along with those not in the know amongst the Uchiha, stand in this feud? And to the survivors, what would happen after this problem is solved in one way that it can _only _be solved at the current moment?

As he had feared, things were coming to a head with the Uchiha and Konoha's government.

'What can I do in this situation?' Naruto asked himself. He, for the first time in his life, was faced with the knowledge of a great disaster that will occur in the near future. What can he do to prevent this from happening? Can he even prevent it from happening?

His very first mission, imposed by himself... And yet he had been set on the course to failure.

Naruto sighed, knowing that this will be a next-to-impossible task to perform. "Well... better to try and fail rather than doing nothing at all I suppose."

If he couldn't possibly save everyone... Then at least, he will save as much as he possibly can.

* * *

Satsuki felt as if she was a stranger in a familiar land.

With the thought that there was a looming conspiracy behind everything, she felt as if she knew little about her own clan.

Her sense of familiarity with most of the clansmen was gone, and it was replaced with suspicion. Though she hid it rather well, she was very worried deep down, due to her lack of knowledge as to what the conspiracy was, other than the fact that it involved Itachi.

She shook her head, attempting to at least take that thought off of her mind for the moment.

However, she still acknowledged the possible threat that the conspiracy represented if it were indeed as bad as she thought it was. And suffice to say that the overarching feeling of helplessness due to being caught in the middle of something bigger than herself was felt by Satsuki.

Succeeding in the attempt to forget the problem for a moment or two, Satsuki found herself back in her house, she said as she entered; "I'm back."

"Welcome home dear." said her mother from the dining room.

And then, there was her mother. Naruto had requested a private conversation just the previous night, and something made her think that it was to talk about things that she's not meant to know.

So it seemed that she's not the only one hiding things from each other. That is, if her presumption were correct. Which would mean that he's either involved in it, or that he's an outsider who just happened to know it somehow.

Entering the dining room, she saw that her father was not present, unlike usual, where he would be sitting in one of the seats at the dining table, brooding over something that just escaped her mind. Her mother was present though, sitting at the spot where Fugaku usually resides.

"Mom, where's father?" she asked.

"He's not here Satsuki, he... has an important meeting to attend to." Mikoto said, her tone of voice indicated a slight sadness, something that Satsuki didn't miss.

"What kind of important meeting mom?" Normally, she would've let that be, but now, she felt the need to ask.

"A meeting between the head of the clan, the elders, and most of our able-bodied men." Mikoto answered, "They're talking about future prospects that we as a clan could look forward to."

"...Oh." she immediately stopped, thinking that it made some sense that her father would go to such a meeting.

"So was yesterday fun? Spending your time with Naruto?" her mother asked afterwards.

Satsuki smiled as she said; "It was really fun. We just spend the day by having conversations, eating snacks like dango, takoyaki, things like that. It's really pleasant."

Mikoto couldn't help but find her daughter's smile as the brightest, most beatific-looking smile she had ever seen her having. 'It's always like this whenever it concerns him.' she thought as she smiled.

Although... She was aware of the hubbub that occurred yesterday afternoon. About a 'pair of teenage troublemakers' that pranked people left and right who were capable enough to escape most Chuunin that was tasked to chase them.

It wouldn't be a surprise to her if she and Naruto were the 'troublemakers'. After all, they were the only young ones that she could say as brave and skilled enough to pull off that kind of stunt in the first place.

But it was said that they didn't hurt anybody. Well, if one can count the bruised pride of the Shinobies that failed to capture them as hurting somebody, then one might be allowed to differ, but nevertheless, Mikoto allowed her daughter to have a bit of fun with Naruto without any lectures whatsoever.

"Hey mom."

She turned to her daughter when she spoke as if she wanted to ask something, "Yes, Satsuki?"

"...What's going on with Itachi-nii?" she asked with an innocent tone of voice. "He's... not like his usual self these past few months. Distant. Aloof. Is he in some kind of trouble or something?"

...Mikoto knew that this question or its variations would come up someday. But out of all days, why must it be now? After so many days and weeks passed noticing it but not mentioning it in any way?

The matriarch of the Uchiha clan dreaded the inevitable question. But now, she didn't see any possible way out of the question.

So she decided to steel herself. She turned to Satsuki and said; "He's grown a bit distant, yes. But I can't blame him, he's a part of ANBU now. A captain even. He thought that it's best for him to be committed to the job. And it's a good thing in a way."

Commitment to the job. Such a thing was not unheard of by Satsuki, but she felt that there's something more to it than that, "But... Even with the little free time he had, why wouldn't he spend that time with us? And... why is everyone's so suspicious of him right now? He's not involved in Shisui-san's death, right?"

"No. Of course not." Mikoto said, speaking with as much truth as she possibly could. She knew that Shisui performed a suicide, but due to Itachi being near him at the time, most of the clansmen were suspicious of him being a mole that sought the coup's failure.

The ones who didn't know how true their suspicions were was no one else but her and her husband. "And like I told you, Itachi really takes his job seriously. You can't blame him for that, okay? He's your brother. At least try to see it from his point of view." she said, 'Well...' Mikoto added to herself, 'Just don't try too much.'

"...Alright. I understand. I... understand it in a way." Satsuki conceded, "It's just... I can't help but think that there's something more to this, you know? All of this were just parts of something much bigger."

Though Mikoto procured a smile, deep down, she was worried even more for her daughter, "Satsuki, are you thinking that there's a conspiracy behind all of this?"

"...Would you believe me if I told you that I am?"

"...Well, I would say that you're very imaginative." Mikoto answered with an amused-looking smile. Though her ability to hide her emotions was quite impeccable, she could not suppress the feeling of guilt into oblivion. She could only repress it to a degree, which she hoped that it failed to surface into her facial expression.

Satsuki sighed, apparently not noticing her mother's guilt which she hid very well. "Right... But... what do you think mom? About all of this?"

Mikoto inwardly sighed, feeling a bit burdened by the secret that she's carrying. The weight of it was not for Satsuki to know, that's all that matters. She would lie and deceive her, at least, that's what she could do at this point.

At the beginning, where Fugaku began the idea to coup, Mikoto was one of his staunch followers. But even then, before the clan's pride, her family must always comes first. And as time went on and Itachi began to grow distant due to where his allegiance really was, she no longer thought that the coup was such a good idea.

And now, she's paying the price. And there's nothing else that she could do to prevent it.

...But... perhaps she could try something... Though convincing those who believed in the cause to stand down or convincing the Elder Council of Konoha to broker a peace treaty were no longer viable options, maybe she could do something else instead...

She turned to Satsuki and said; "I think that you're thinking too much Satsuki, dear. This problem will go away sooner or later. I promise." she said with a slightly more vibrant smile.

* * *

"This problem won't go away... It will end in the most bloody manner possible."

"...Really Kiba? You don't think that you're exaggerating it a little bit? It's just a mathematical problem." Naruto said to his friend who had said a hyperbolic statement regarding on his incapability to solve a mathematical problem.

"Damn it Naruto, you know how much I hate these things." Kiba said, "And what's with you? You look like you're letting your mind wander in anywhere but here."

"...Just having some thoughts, that's all." Naruto said to justify his current attitude of _looking _like he's paying attention, but actually doing the opposite.

"What's on your mind anyway? It's gotta be important enough for you to not pay attention."

Knowing who Naruto was, Kiba was somewhat interested as to why he's investing his attention into something else entirely. During his previous stunt when he explained why he felt that telling the story of the Yondaime over and over again was redundant, Kiba noticed that he was a bit agitated when Iruka began telling the story.

Which was strange, considering that in the early days, he used to like hearing it over and over again, seemingly not bored by the repetition. What made him change, Kiba had wondered... But in the end, like all things that he found as interesting, it's usually thrown back into the recess of his mind once he decided that it wasn't really important for him to ponder deeply.

And when Naruto decided to keep his silence, Kiba thought that he might be thinking about something personal. "Eh alright. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine with me." he said as he shrugged.

Though it was done in silence, Naruto appreciated the gesture. As his mind was pondering about what he could do at this moment to at least minimize the damage that would occur when things between Konoha, Itachi Uchiha, and his clan came to its inevitable conclusion.

He must think about those who wanted the coup to happen, and those who do not want it to happen. Both sides were no longer seen as different now if he were to assume where the Konoha's government current stance really was.

If he prevented the killings, there's no guarantee that the coup will be aborted. If he were to let it happen when he could at least do something, he could not forgive himself.

He had a thought, that _maybe _he should just let this happen. This was something much bigger than himself, and he couldn't just interfere as a third party, considering that he didn't have any concrete link to the clan nor to the government.

On the latter, considering that he's just a student of the Shinobi Academy, a prospective Shinobi, not yet a real one, he couldn't possibly represent the whole government of Konoha.

All in all, the best thing that he could do was to stand at the sidelines. Because he held no political power in the scheme of things.

This frustrated him. Though he might not show it, Naruto was disturbed by the mere fact that he's unable to do anything worth doing. He had a thought of convincing the Hokage, but if the situation had already gone to worst, then that must mean that either the Hokage was unable to stop it from happening, or he just didn't care.

'Knowing the old man, it must've been the former.' he thought. 'Did he do the best that he could...? There's no way that he's going to let this happen, is he?'

He let that thought linger before he realized something: Hiruzen Sarutobi was the leader of the village. The decision of this inevitable end of the hidden conflict must be eating him apart, but as a leader... He must've been mentally prepared to face the consequences and the implications of his decision.

Naruto clenched his fist and gritted his teeth without baring them. The feeling of helplessness consumed him. All these powers at his beck and call, and what could he possibly do with them in the current situation?

'...Nothing that would make this better. But... maybe I can secure Satsuki's safety.'

It seemed rather hopeful at best, hopeless at worst... But considering the stake that he's facing, the magnitude of what he's trying to prevent, and the scale of his unimportance within Konoha's ranks, the other options seemed futile.

Though her mother had assured him that she would keep Satsuki out of harm's way, Naruto thought that perhaps he could do something to help her in securing her safety.

He looked at Satsuki, who noticed this and promptly turned her head away, as if she had been caught doing something inappropriate and wanted to pretend like she did nothing of the sort.

'...Hm... I have to find a way. But before I do that... I might need to tell someone else about what I'm going to do and why.'

* * *

When the bell rang late in the afternoon and the students of the Academy all spread out to wherever they want to go after their study session for the day, Satsuki was surprised to see someone waiting for her at the Academy's front gate.

"Mom?" she exclaimed at seeing her mother standing with her arms crossed behind her back. She walked closer to her, and said; "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to pick you up." Mikoto said, "Why do you look so surprised? I know this is a bit unexpected, but it's not like this is the first time that I'm picking you up, is it?"

"Well, no." Satsuki admitted, "It's just that, you didn't mention it beforehand, so I was kind of surprised to see you here."

"Well, I've got some time to spend, that's all." Mikoto said as she shrugged, "Now. Before we go home, would you mind spend some time with me? I want to go shopping, and I thought that since I'm going to go to the grocery store at the same time as when you're going to go home, I thought that I could take you shopping with me."

Satsuki smiled as she nodded, "Well... sure, why not?" she rhetorically asked as she shrugged.

...

To an unsuspecting pair of eyes and/or ears, that conversation was nothing more than a mother picking up her daughter to a session of grocery shopping.

But to Naruto, who's hiding inside the building but able to hear the conversation from afar, he regarded it with suspicion. Mikoto had lied through her teeth about the reason why she's there, and that she's planning something else other than grocery shopping with her daughter.

Though she might not have any foul intention, considering how genuine she was in swearing to him that she won't become a 'collateral damage' in this conflict, Naruto still felt that there's something somewhat fishy about her request, 'What could she possibly want to do with her?' he wondered for a moment. But then, he decided that he didn't have time to lose.

With a slight gust of wind, Naruto took off running towards the rooftop, spending no less than six seconds to get there from the first floor. From the rooftop, he looked down and saw that Mikoto and Satsuki were walking towards a particular direction.

Naruto felt conflicted. He wanted to follow them from afar, but he also wanted to inform his mother that he would have to come home late to do something that needed his immediate attention, preferably not the whole truth, but something that would make her allow him to follow Satsuki and Mikoto.

After a moment, Naruto made a decision...

* * *

Kanzaki Taji could be found relaxing in the living room of her house after she had eaten her lunch, having left a half of the two-person meal for Naruto to eat when he got home if he wanted more food. Which he usually is after his time at the Academy.

Though she knew that her son didn't exactly require the normal nutrition provided by human food to sustain himself, she knew that Naruto liked to eat food most of the times, just like other people.

Whenever he's not on his 'power-induced' state, such as flying or moving at high speeds, its easy for her to forget that he's a different being compared to herself or to others like her.

As a Medic-nin, Taji had perform some medical examinations on Naruto that didn't require the use of syringes, considering that they had a tendency to break whenever they tried to pierce his skin, and found that his powers came from the chakra output.

A Shinobi had a unique method in controlling their chakra to perform superhuman feats. The most common method was the hand seals.

The hand seals, as its name might suggest, is a set of hand signatures that allowed a Shinobi to control and mold their chakra and perform certain Genjutsu or Ninjutsu.

However, what most didn't know and only few did after recent discovery, the hand seals was merely a mnemonic device. It was discovered that the capability to manipulate chakra was something that every person inherently had ever since they were born, but only some could manipulate it to the extent of what a Shinobi could do, and the hand seals were nothing more than kinesthetic aids to help them do so.

This discovery was made possible due to a certain ANBU with a special power at her beck and call, similar to Naruto. This ANBU's identity was still a secret, but thanks to the Hokage and her connection to Naruto, Taji was made privy of the knowledge of what was recently found.

Though not the ANBU's identity. Not even her codename was divulged.

The third Hokage assumed that Naruto's powers were the result of his chakra producing different effects that amplified the strengths of his body. But his capability to fly without any visible means to propel and sustain himself in the air suggested that it's also manifesting itself in a way other than enhancing his body strength, speed, stamina, and durability.

However, all of this was not the things that matter.

To Taji, all that mattered was that now, Naruto's ability had a proper explanation as to why they're there. It didn't matter to her whether or not Naruto was a sub-species of humans that were capable of things that others just can't do and that he's a perfect specimen to be examined 'thoroughly', he's still her son.

Her _adopted _son, perhaps. But her son nonetheless.

And as his mother, he just won't let him be treated as an some_thing _valuable with the potential to be experimented on.

Hiruzen also agreed with her stance against the idea of using him as an experiment. But he offered a middle ground, which was to have him surveyed on certain times and do some tasks that will allow them to estimate the reason as to why he's able to become this way through chakra and why others, while having what he had, just cannot even try to become like him.

_"He's special, Taji. And if my assumption is correct, he and the ANBU were just the ones that we know. There might be more people like them out there."_

Taji sighed, remembering her conversation with the Hokage at his office a few days ago. Wondering when would be the right time for her to break this news to him. That he was offered to be examined to check what makes him tick.

Not in a way that would make him be treated like a lab rat, but as a patient with curious symptoms.

'As if that will soften the blow.' Taji thought sarcastically. Either way, he would be treated as if he were a freak. An aberrant of nature. While in her opinion, he's just a boy who happened to have unique powers.

Her musings were cut off when she heard a slight commotion upstairs, the direction in which the sound came from indicated that it came from Naruto's room.

Assuming that Naruto entered the room through the window by flying, Taji walked upstairs to check whether or not her assumption was true.

And when he was just about to open the door leading to his room, it was instead opened by him, who did not look surprised by her sudden appearance. Perhaps because he had heard her coming from upstairs.

"Mom. Hi." he said as a way of greeting, his face betrayed his slight anxiety, however, "Sorry about barging in through the window, but I have to place my bag fast, I need to get out for a while, and might come home late, do you mind if I do that?"

Judging by how fast he's talking, Taji had a suspicion that he's hiding something. "And might I ask why do you have to get out for a while and possibly come home late? What do you have to do, and where? It seems important." she asked as she crossed her arms together.

"...I've a... friend... that I need to accompany with." Naruto began with a half-lie half-truth statement.

But due to him not able to form a proper follow-up, it prompted Taji to say; "I see. Why does she or he wanted you to accompany them? And what would you two be doing for you to think that you would be coming late to home?"

"..." Naruto, after a few moments of silence, sighed as he said; "You've figured out that I was trying to lie through my teeth, didn't you?"

Taji smiled wryly, "Was it too obvious?" she asked, as if challenging him. But then, she asked once more, this time with a more serious tone of voice, "You're obviously thinking about doing something that I won't approve, or at least would have a hard time approving."

"And you're right about that." Naruto answered without missing a beat. "But I'm willing to explain. Could you just hear me out?"

Taji looked at her son's face, and saw nothing but sheer determination and slight pleading behind his expression, especially behind his blue-colored eyes. Whatever he wanted to say must be quite important. She sighed before she conceded, "Very well. Tell me from the beginning. And do _not..._"

She raised her right index finger to convey a warning, "...Leave anything out. Understand? I can see that you want to do something that must be very important to you, but tell me everything so that I can make an informed decision. Are we clear, son?" she warned rather sternly due to how much she cared about Naruto's well-being.

"We're clear." Naruto answered with a nod.

"Good. Now tell me what this is all about."

* * *

When Fugaku arrived at his house, the first thing he noticed was the lack of any outdoor footwear in the entrance. Indicating that his wife, his daughter, and his son, were not at home.

Which was rather strange, considering that at the very least, Satsuki should be home by now. After all, it had been sometime after the Academy's study session was over.

'...Why do I feel as if there's something amiss?'

Fugaku then went and checked every nook and cranny in his house, from the living room to the bedroom of his children, he found that the house was truly empty. Though this wouldn't be the first time something like this had happened, Fugaku couldn't help but feel that this time, it was slightly different.

The tension in the air was the reason why Fugaku felt that something was very wrong. With what he now know about Itachi, everything seemed to be out to get him.

Hell, he had participated the meeting in which his leadership was criticized, to say the very least, due to Itachi's defection was all but officially confirmed and yet he was unable to perform the most logical thing to maintain the coup, to eliminate every possible threat.

Even if said threat were his own son.

But he was not that low of a man... His pride for his clan might come first before reason, but his love for his own family must be put above everything else.

The only thing was... He knew how distorted his clansmen were. Most of them, if not all, knew the possible repercussion of their coup, and they just could not _wait _for it to happen.

Some of them were even madmen. And Fugaku merely allowed them in the ranks for they were vocal supporters of the coup. But that didn't mean that he didn't acknowledge their madness, he was... desperate.

And now, Itachi, his eldest child, his only son, was pitted against him. He, while could not be said as 'mad', vehemently but passively hated the coup and what it stood for.

He was distorted as well, Fugaku had seen this. His distortion, or degree of madness, was such that if he got himself a goal that would benefit the greater good, or a goal that would provide peace for a long while, he would do it, no matter how cruel or heinous it was.

Itachi had talked about it with him once, and Fugaku had said to him that such a man will go very far to achieve what he wish. How far, only that man alone could tell. Depending on how... devoted, that man is to his ideals, then... there will be no limits for him to 'cross'.

...Nothing could stop him. Not even his own family.

...How did it all come to this? All he wanted was for his clan to no longer be treated and suspected as the perpetrator of the Kyuubi incident that killed the Yondaime. Fugaku had a great respect for the man. Hell, they were great friends even, and that was the reason why, during his time as the Hokage, the Uchiha clan was treated with respect and dignity.

Not ostracized and belittled by the government, like it was now. If he were not killed so prematurely, then perhaps they could even change the policies that were made by the Second Hokage to more accommodable ones for the Uchiha.

But he underestimated Itachi's hatred of war and his desire for a peaceful time, his intelligence that allowed him to foresee the probable aftereffects of the coup if it were successful or failed, and his apparent lack of pride of being a part of the Uchiha clan.

Unlike most of his clansmen, Itachi regarded the abilities that his clan possessed as tools to be used. Nothing more, nothing less.

A pragmatic approach that almost none of the rest of the clan shared. And it was the reason why he was regarded with much suspicion by almost all of his peers.

And now... it's only a matter of time until he came back into the district one final time. To finish things, tie up every loose ends.

'...I suppose there's not a thing to blame but myself.' he lamented, knowing that it all began with pride. His and that of his clansmen.

But unlike some of the members of the resistance, his clan pride was second only to his love for his family.

And now, his family was in shambles, and his clan was set on a path to ruin.

Such was the price of his pride.

* * *

"...Naruto. Do you have any idea what you have discovered? What it entails?" Taji asked her son, her face filled with anxiety and fear after hearing what he had found out.

"I know mom." Naruto nodded. "...What do _you _think of all this? Do you think that there's still a viable, peaceful solution?"

"...I don't know." Taji admitted, "How long has this been going on?"

"Eight years." Naruto answered, remembering what Mikoto said.

Taji pondered for a moment, trying to answer; '_Yes, it can be solved peacefully.'_, but... "Then I'm afraid peaceful solution is no longer available... As much as I hate to say that." she said in genuine sadness.

"I hate to say it as well, mom. But this time, Mikoto-san is planning on doing something to Satsuki. I'm sure it's nothing bad, but... I just want to make sure what it is exactly that she's planning to do."

"You want to be certain that she will be safe." Taji said.

"Well... yes." Naruto answered.

"Do you doubt Mikoto-san, Naruto? She is Satsuki's mother after all. I'm sure that she has the best intention with whatever she wants to do with Satsuki." Taji said, defending Mikoto.

"I know, I just... I'm worried about her."

Seeing him with such devotion and concern over Satsuki, Taji couldn't help but think that Naruto was quite protective of Satsuki. Fiercely protective in fact, if he were worried over Satsuki this much and having some doubts over what Mikoto, her own mother, was going to do.

"...Tell me something, my son." Taji said.

"Yeah?"

"If I were to say that you must stay here and not follow Mikoto and Satsuki from afar... Would you try to break out of the house and disobey me?" she asked.

Naruto looked as if he's been caught red-handed. He sheepishly answered with; "...Well... yeah."

She blinked twice before she finally sighed and shook her head, "Then why would you bother asking me for permission Naruto?" she said with a smile.

"Because it's just the right thing to do." Naruto said in a rather innocent manner, "I mean... even though I would go with or without your permission, I gotta at least try, right?" he asked rhetorically.

Taji's smile widened, she patted Naruto's head, raising her arm slightly due to him being almost as tall as her, and said; "Then in that case, do what you feel necessary. And if there would be a similar situation in the future, Naruto... Just remember: I believe that your heart is in the right place. And I will always trust you to do the right thing because of that. Understood?"

Naruto smiled back and nodded, "Understood."

Taji nodded approvingly and said; "Good. Good..."

* * *

It had been nearly an hour after she picked up her daughter from the Academy under the pretense of taking her on a session of grocery shopping. Satsuki seemed oblivious to what she really intended, and hopefully, she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary from her behavior.

Mikoto was carrying some paper bags containing things that proved to be important in a household, such as the ingredients required for a meal time, new toothpastes, et cetera, and she and Satsuki were just beginning to walk towards their house.

Halfway there, Mikoto looked as if she were winded, and rather tiredly, she said to Satsuki, "Satsuki, let's sit down for a bit shall we? I'm a bit tired."

Satsuki looked at her mother and said; "If those are too heavy, I'll carry it for you mom."

"No no, let's just rest. I feel a bit strained anyway." she said as she walked towards the nearby bench and sat, sighing out of relief as she did so. She looked at Satsuki and tapped her hand at the empty spot besides her. "Come, sit with me Satsuki."

Satsuki complied after half a second of confusion, she sat besides her mother, whom she noticed was looking at her as if she's observing something worth seeing, such a piece of art or something of the sort.

"...What?" Satsuki asked after Mikoto spent more than just five seconds of staring at her.

Mikoto sighed and answered; "Nothing... I... My mind is just being preoccupied with something."

"...Is it about Itachi-nii?" Satsuki asked.

Her mother sighed heavily as she answered; "Something like that, yes..."

...

After extending his hearing range and focusing on Mikoto and Satsuki's voice, Naruto finally arrived at the nearest rooftop of a building from which he could get a good angle to look at the mother-daugher pair from afar without being noticed.

Of course, the 'nearest' being nearly two hundred meters apart. A far enough distance for him to not be noticed by them but him still being able to see and listen to them.

'Well... let's see how this plays out.'

...

"Mom..." Satsuki began, as if unsure that she wanted to talk what she's going to talk about, "What did you and Naruto talk about yesterday night?"

Mikoto saw this one coming from miles away, metaphorically speaking, "He's... concerned about you." Mikoto began, "Yes, he's worried that you would get in trouble for coming home late, past the curfew. But I assured him that it would be alright."

Satsuki felt as if her mother was telling the truth and the lie at the same time. But she conceded to the fact that it made some sense in a way. "I see... Hm, he really cares about me that much, does he?" she asked rhetorically as a smile was formed on her face.

"Yes. He does." Mikoto said, "He really cares about you, Satsuki. To the point where I think it's much more than just friendly concern." she said, her teasing tone was identifiable.

"...W-what do you mean?" Satsuki asked.

"The devotion that he showed back then resembled a man's concern over his significant other."

Satsuki blushed, and she said with a stutter; "Y-you're exaggerating mom. W-we're just friends, that's all."

Mikoto smiled and inwardly, she thought, 'So young... So precocious... How would you react if you know what Naruto's hiding I wonder...?' she asked rhetorically.

Satsuki then felt her mother's hand grasping her shoulder, "Satsuki. Look at me dear."

She did so, and when she met her mother's equally black-colored eyes, she heard her speak; "I know that things might be hard right now... But trust me, it will all be over soon."

Her tone was both comforting and cryptic at the same time. And this time, Satsuki felt a bit strange, as if she had a built-in alarm system in her body that told her that her own mother was hiding something.

"Mom, wha...t...?"

Then came the encroaching blackness, and the last, but faint thing that she saw before she was overtaken by unconsciousness was a pair of red eyes with strange looking pupils that belonged to her mother.

...

'...I'm sorry Satsuki, but this is for your own good.' she comforted her daughter and herself as she turned off the Sharingan.

She then carried the unconscious form of her daughter on her back so that her arms would be free to make a hand seal. The things that she had bought with her was left, as they were nothing more than distractions.

Mikoto was about to perform a Shunshin when a sudden gust of wind followed by the sound of something announcing its sudden presence nearby made her turn her head towards it.

And there she saw Naruto, who seemed to be scrutinizing her with his eyes.

"Naruto-kun." Mikoto said, "...I assume you saw what I did?" she asked, not expecting Naruto to answer since she already knew.

"And hear." Naruto said, "You put a Genjutsu on her. Or at least, you interfered with her chakra circulation, just like how you put a Genjutsu on a person, to put her into unconsciousness."

Mikoto was quite impressed. She chalked off her not knowing that she was being watched and eavesdropped due to the fact that he could do it from afar, but deducing what she did in such a short time was impressive, considering that he had never experienced a Genjutsu first hand.

"But I'm more concerned about _why _you did it." Naruto continued, and finished with; "And _where _are you taking her."

After a moment, Mikoto said; "...I'm taking her to somewhere safe, Naruto-kun. Can you follow a person performing a Shunshin?"

Naruto nodded, "I can. Not that hard actually."

Mikoto then said; "Then follow me. I'll explain on the way."

And when Mikoto disappeared, leaving a puff of smoke, Naruto followed suit, leaving a gust of wind due to the sheer speed of his movement.

* * *

One Hiruzen Sarutobi could be found in the study room inside the house reserved for the Hokage and his family, intertwining his hands, resting his elbows on his desk, and stared into the door, his eyes unfocused, as if his mind were focused in something else entirely.

The reason why he's taking a pose that would make one get the impression that he's an evil, scheming leader of a mysterious organization that had a hidden agenda concerning the apocalypse was because he was a bit on edge due to his previous conversation with a certain Uchiha.

The topic of the conversation itself was quite intriguing to him. The Uchiha was seeking protection for herself and one other member of the clan, a family member of hers.

Knowing who she was, Hiruzen assumed that it was her daughter. And when she confirmed it, Hiruzen knew how desperate she was to make sure that her daughter would be saved.

The situation between the Uchiha clan and Konoha's government had always been tense with one another. The Kyuubi incident that killed the Yondaime was just something that escalated it into something even more prominent than before.

Being the one who believed in his older teacher's words of 'We can co-exist together in harmony.', Hiruzen had tried to solve the matter peacefully, but his pragmatic team-mates from his Jounin days were bent on exercising their authority to ensure Konoha's security and safety in the most alienating way possible.

Pitted against the majority who voted to put the Uchiha under scrutiny, Hiruzen had no choice but to allow the segregation. And after years of having a mole within the Uchiha clan who informed them of the impending coup, it was decided that the problem could no longer be resolved in a peaceful manner.

Despite his insistence to find those who did not want the coup to occur within the clan, such as their mole, Itachi Uchiha, so that they could be spared, Hiruzen's pleas were ignored. Faced with the impossibility of extracting those who wanted to resist the resistance, he was forced to accept that there were no alternatives that could save the proud clan.

But the conversation that she had with Mikoto Uchiha was... enlightening to say the least. She was a part of a minority who had grown to reject the idea of the coup for different reasons, but unable to do anything either because of their ties with their clan or their lack of trust towards Konoha's government.

He had a thought then, that perhaps her words could garner some sympathy, and if it wouldn't outright nullify, it would at least delay the planned genocide long enough to extract those who were like her.

But she had shaken her head when he brought that up, and she said that those like her had already given up the possibility of getting out. And not to mention that while there were some who didn't want the coup to happen, they were a part of a family who supported the coup wholeheartedly.

Combined with the clan's suspicion about Itachi being a mole, she assumed correctly that the genocide would occur very soon. And any method of extraction would either be too suspicious, too risky, or too time-consuming to carry out. And so, Hiruzen was faced with a choice.

Should he accept this woman and her child, or should he not? It was a decision in which he alone would be responsible for, for she had asked this out of him personally and without any political strings attached.

She did that out of her own concern for her daughter, nothing more.

And because Itachi had already been tasked to kill his whole clan in the very, _very _near future, should he welcomed Mikoto and her youngest child, they would be the last remnant of the proud clan.

In his reasoning, if there were only two people he could save from hundreds, then he might as well take it.

So he accepted and allowed Mikoto to have security, which he himself provided.

Hiruzen then heard the sound of a knock coming from upstairs. '...She used Shunshin to enter from the balcony instead of entering from the main door.'

It was somewhat expected, considering that she might be trying to act discreetly.

As Hiruzen lifted himself up from his chair and walked towards the balcony, he thought about Mikoto's daughter, Satsuki, whom he had been told as having no clue whatsoever about the coup.

He wondered how she would tell her daughter about the reason why she had to take her to this place and stay there for a couple of days. Handing out the whole unpleasant truth might not do her some good, and she, as her mother, should realize this.

So what could she...?

...And his answer came when he saw Satsuki's unconscious form being carried by her mother. '...So she took the easy way. Well, considering the magnitude of the secret, I shouldn't be surprised.'

He opened the door to the balcony and said; "Come in."

Mikoto nodded wordlessly as she entered...

Along with another person behind her that Hiruzen failed to notice before.

"...Naruto?"

Naruto looked at Hiruzen, his eyes were intense and narrowed as he looked without any fear towards him, "Old man." he greeted, not jovially or with respectful tone, like he used to, it was... neutral at best and hostile at worst, "I'm sorry for intruding. But... I happen to know the situation about the Uchiha clan and Konoha."

Now this, while not impossible to occur by any means, was something that Hiruzen didn't expect. "...How much do you know?"

"Suffice to say, I know enough." Naruto said, "Old man, is this solution really... necessary? I mean, mass murder? Is it so hard to _talk _about this? I mean, during these times, wasn't there any civil debates between the two sides so that this can be resolved peacefully, if at all?"

Hiruzen looked at Mikoto, who had placed Satsuki into a couch for the time being, then he turned to Naruto, "...Does your mother... know, about this?"

"...If she did know, what will you do to her?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing." Hiruzen answered, "As long as she doesn't reveal it carelessly, which I doubt she would, then we have nothing to worry about."

Naruto nodded, "Good. 'Cause I won't forgive you if you're planning to do something bad to her."

"I may be forced to become a pragmatic leader, Naruto. But I know that there are limits that I must impose on myself." Hiruzen said, "Now... Let's not talk about this here. Mikoto-san, I assume that he knew this through you, considering that you came with him?"

"He overheard me and Fugaku talking with Itachi about the... you-know-what." Mikoto said, "Gave me quite a scare with his abilities too."

"...Well, that's to be expected." Hiruzen remarked, "Naruto, if you want to talk, then let's do it in another room. Let Satsuki rest for a bit. Hopefully, when she woke up and we explained the situation to her, she could understand why you did this, Mikoto."

"...Let's hope so."

...

* * *

_Then, after an unspecified amount of time afterwards..._

The night had fallen. And the Uchiha district was eerily quiet, as if it were a ghost town. Despite the darkness made by the time of night, the buildings were not lit, as if nobody was there to turn on the light. And an eerie atmosphere covered the whole town.

Such an occurrence was not normal. It was as if the concept of 'life' had been forcefully taken from the area, and if someone who had a sharp instinct walked around the area, they would feel uncomfortable if not outright afraid.

But within this ghost town, there was one person who was running _towards _the center of the area instead of away from it. Felt with fear, anxiety, and doubt, this person ran and ran until a particular house came into view.

The door was opened and the sounds of frantic footsteps echoed within the house as this person was fully intent on finding something, or someone within the house.

Reaching the living room, she finally found someone.

Two person in fact. But not in a situation where it made her happy.

As she knew both of them. And that one of them was standing while the other was lying on the ground in the pool of his own blood, dead, and unresponsive.

"...No... No. Why...? Why did you do this?"

"...Satsuki. Welcome home."

"Itachi-nii... So... so it's true, what they told me and... Oh gods... How could you?!"

"It is a necessary measure, Satsuki." said Itachi to his younger sister as his Sharingan began to transform, "I don't know who told you... But I hope that someday, you'll understand why I had to do this."

* * *

**To be Continued...**

* * *

There's the first thing that Naruto has changed: He, through indirect means, made Mikoto Uchiha survive the massacre.

Anyway, the last part of this chapter is a bit anachronistic, considering that the events preceding Satsuki's meeting with Itachi during the massacre will be at the next chapter.

By the way, I have a... different interpretation of Itachi's character. Considering what he did, the emotional trauma that he experienced, and the fact that he did it out of the order of his higher-ups, his personality in this fic would be altered slightly so that him coping with himself for what he did would make slightly more sense.

He's still the cold, calculating prodigy traitor that we know, don't worry. I merely expand the logical side of him and the 'distortion' of self that he possesses.

No normal man could even think of killing his whole family. Even for the so-called 'greater good'. If a man could think that and would do that, then he must have some justification, and what is Itachi's justification?

He wants peace. He hates war, but he also knows that to maintain peace, sometimes one has to apply force or violence to those who would disturb it.

To me, Itachi is the kind of man who would justify his terrible deeds with cold, hard logic. However, he's different from other antagonists that do atrocious things in that he would justify it to _himself_. In my interpretation, he would not try to justify it to other people. He would let them judge him, mock him, loathe him, whatever they want, as long as his action could prolong the peaceful times for everybody else.

If taking a hundred lives could save thousands or more, then he would do it. To me, he is, or should be that kind of man. Cold and ruthless when the situation calls for it, but not really heartless.

There, that's my interpretation of Itachi Uchiha.

...

And if you're thinking that I'm taking some elements of Shirou Emiya/Archer from Fate/Stay Night and give it to Itachi, then kudos to you for figuring out.

So, hope you're still interested, see you at the next chapter!


	4. Troubled Childhood 3

**Disclaimer: **I do not, in any way, own the Naruto franchise. I don't get any royalty whatsoever from the income that came from the sale of the tankoubons, the merchandises, and other stuff related to Naruto.

I'm just a guy who found the setting, the characters, and the lore of Naruto interesting and easily malleable enough to a degree and create stories based on the elements found in the manga with some twists to make it 'unique'. All the rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto as the mangaka and Shueisha as the company that owns Weekly Shonen JUMP.

**AN: **By the way, have you ever had that feeling when you just fell in love with a story so much that you became quite obsessed with it? This story is my current fascination, so you can expect me to dish out chapters of this particular story at a much faster pace compared to the other ones that I have. In fact, I already have twelve chapters of this finished.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Troubled Childhood 3  
**

* * *

A pair of black eyes opened after an unwanted and enforced slumber. The eyes belonged to one Satsuki Uchiha, who had been put to sleep without her consent by her own mother, Mikoto Uchiha.

The moment her eyes were adjusted, she found that she had been laid down in a couch within a room. She lifted her back and began to check her surroundings, and found that the room that she had been placed into were rather unfamiliar. '...This is not my house.' she noted.

Because the room that she stayed in was connected to the balcony, she noticed two things; firstly, this was the second floor of someone else's house. And secondly, it's already nighttime, considering that the moon could be seen.

It took her another moment before her mind became clear and she remembered what caused the unconsciousness in the first place, '...Mom.'

She remembered her mother's eyes transforming before she was knocked out cold by something that she couldn't see but feel. It was as if something inside of her had been tampered with, '...Genjutsu?' she asked rhetorically, knowing that it felt as if she had been under a spell that forced her to sleep.

Tampering with one's chakra circulation _could _do that to someone, she had to admit that.

The questions that she wanted to ask, and desperately wanted an answer for were... "Why did she do it...? And where have she brought me?"

Slowly, she separated herself from the couch, and stood. Moments later, she walked towards the door leading to the corridor of the house's interior. She opened it slowly, and when it was slightly opened, she peeked, to see whether or not anyone was there.

When she found it empty, she got out of the room and closed the door quietly.

Then, she heard voices coming from below. Voices of a woman, an old man, and a younger man. Voices that she found familiar to her ears when she focused her hearing to listen to their conversation.

_"So that's it then...? We're just going to let this happen? There really is no other way to solve this problem but **this?**"_

'Naruto...?'

_"There is none, Naruto. Not after eight years of animosity. ...The mission is currently being carried out. He should be finished in a couple of hours or so. He's very talented after all."_

'The Hokage? What is he... doing? And what is he talking about?'

_"I suppose that I came forward too late then? That If I had done this long ago instead of now, the clan and Konoha might be able to have a civil conversation to work things out?"_

'Mom? The clan? What's going on here?'

_"...Perhaps. Though we can't know for sure now. And it no longer matters in the current order of things." _the Hokage said, _"All we can do now is to wait."_

_"...Old man, did you at least made attempts to solve this situation peacefully? I mean, before it got to the point where it's no longer repairable? If so, then what caused them to fail?"_

_"...Differences in our philosophy." _Hiruzen answered, _"I stood for what one of my sensei said, that we can all live peacefully in harmony through understanding. But most of the people that I work for adopted the way of thinking that my sensei's brother used."  
_

_"Which is?"_ asked Naruto.

_"Vigilance is essential." _Hiruzen said, _"And most of my peers took that way of thinking and instill it within their very soul. Instead of faith, they could only trust someone who can be trusted, and even then, they gave their trust tentatively._

_"While that kind of pragmatic thinking is... acceptable. It did not help the situation with the Uchiha clan."_

'...What?'

Hiruzen continued as Satsuki felt a creeping feeling coming up from her stomach, _"Needless to say, I failed to persuade them. And now, here we all are. I didn't even tell Homura or Koharu or anyone else about your deal with me, Mikoto-san, I fear that they will not even try to bother hearing you out before deciding anything."_

_"I'm thankful for that." _Mikoto said, _"...But using my son... Was it your idea?"_

Satsuki's breath hitched, and that creeping feeling began to amplify, _"No. It was Danzo's. He and I recognized that Itachi held no pride for his clan and that he was very loyal to the village and wanted to become a part of the village more than he wanted to become a part of his clan. While I'm personally appalled by the idea of him doing such heinous act... I could also see its benefits. So I consented."_

_"...I always knew that Itachi was not like the other men from our clan. Like you said, he held no pride for his own clan, and I knew that this would make his priority and that of the clan's clash one day. But... for it to end this way..."_

_"There are many things that could be blamed for what will happen tonight. One of which was the decision to segregate your clan from the others due to what happened eight years ago. But none of it matters now. And as for Itachi... will you be able to live with his future reputation, while knowing the truth of what happened?"  
_

_"...I'll make due. As long as Satsuki is alive and with me... It would be enough."_

There was a moment of silence before Hiruzen finally broke it, _"...Naruto, what's wrong?"_

There was no reply, instead there was a sound of someone moving, closer to her position. Satsuki's eyes widened, fearing that Naruto somehow knew she was there and had been eavesdropping on their conversation.

Her fear was proven true when he suddenly showed up, he looked at her and after a moment of tense silence, she lamely said; "...Uh... Hi?"

"...Hey. You woke up early, huh?"

"Yeah, I..." she stopped, "Wait... you... knew... what happened to me?"

Naruto nodded with a faint sigh, "Yes. You heard our conversation, didn't you?" he said, his tone showed that he was not accusing her of doing something wrong.

Instead, it was more... weary, "Yes. Naruto, what's going on?" Satsuki asked, pleaded, wanting to know the truth.

"...Let's go downstairs. We'll explain everything."

And so she followed Naruto, her gut feeling was screaming at her, telling her that something was terribly wrong, whatever they were talking about concerned Itachi, the Uchiha clan as a whole, and she was beginning to realize that her assumption that there was a conspiracy looming over everything might be correct after all.

When they came to the living room, Mikoto's eyes widened as she saw Satsuki, "Satsuki. You're awake..."

Naruto then motioned to the couch and said; "Seat yourself Satsuki. This... will take some time to explain."

"...Mom, Naruto... what... what's going on? What's wrong? Explain what? Is, is this related to Itachi-nii?" she shot off many questions, fearing that they would give the worst answers possible to those questions.

"Satsuki, please... sit." Mikoto asked her, "Just... calm down, okay? Please, sit down."

Reluctantly, Satsuki did so, and Naruto sat beside her. Then, Hiruzen said; "...Satsuki... before we begin. We want you to listen to us until the end. If you want to judge us, that's fine. But listen to us first. Understand?"

Though confused, she slowly nodded after a few seconds of silence, "O-okay."

Hiruzen sighed before he said; "Naruto already figured this out... But to properly begin, let's start with the Kyuubi incident eight years ago. Where the said Bijuu caused the demise of the Fourth Hokage..."

* * *

Fugaku was silent as he stood against a rather menacing figure in front of him. His eyes conveyed no fear, anxiety, or anger. His expression was, if anything, one of knowing. It was as if he was not shocked or surprised, despite the fact that he was covered in blood and his blade was unsheathed.

"...So you've finally come." Fugaku said, "Did you leave me for last?"

"Yes." the figure answered, "It's only logical to cut the branches first before going to the root to ensure that the coup will fully die out. The most... unstable ones... were killed first."

Fugaku tilted his head down, "...Good. At least you make sure those who joined the cause out of blind lust for war and glory were taken out. Even I know now that it was a mistake to let them join."

"Indeed." the figure said, "I understand why you let them, however. You were desperate. Your resources, limited. Your manpower, limited. And most of your men were... for the lack of a better word, disagreed, with your view. They do not fully understand the reason why you fight, why you resist. Only few understood you... And even then, they were not enough."

"...Hmph. Are you lecturing your father, Itachi?" asked Fugaku, "You? Who had killed almost everyone in here, but me?"

"You. And mother. And Satsuki." Itachi corrected him, "The latter two are... out of the picture. The Hokage has... ordered me, to not kill them."

Fugaku sighed, feeling defeated, "So I was right... Mikoto had proposed some kind of a bargain with him somehow..."

"You know of this, father?"

"I presumed as much. After I've waited so long for them to come back home and they never did, I began to get suspicious. I was about to look for them, to see if my hunch was right... Until you came along. Prevented me from doing so."

"If so... then forgive me for not allowing you to see either of them for one last time." Itachi said.

Then, Fugaku's son charged. Intending to kill his father.

But Fugaku, in a matter of a second, activated his Sharingan, and managed to avoid the blade.

He then tried to deliver an elbow strike to Itachi's face, but Itachi had activated his Sharingan as well, allowing him to move his head sideways.

Before Itachi's sideward slash could fully cut Fugaku's abdomen, he jumped back to avoid it, he sent himself several feet away, never taking his eyes off his wayward son until he stopped.

"You made one mistake, Itachi." Fugaku said, "You might've been able to kill them all with the art of assassination. But you chose to deal with me in a close combat situation. So rest assured... I will not die without a fight. Even if I'm pitted against my own son, I am still an Uchiha. I will die fighting."

"...Commendable of you, father." Itachi said, somewhat impressed, "But you are unarmed. I have cut you. And you do not know that I have an advantage that puts me ahead of you. I have kept it secret, even from you. You are delaying the inevitable, father."

His eyes softened slightly as he continued to say; "...Please. Do not delay my objective... father."

"Hn. That's a fancy way of saying 'don't make me do this', son." Fugaku remarked, "But I will still fight. No matter what you say. Do you know why?"

Fugaku then performed several handseals before he yelled; "Because I am an Uchiha! And I have my pride as the leader of the clan!"

And then... the father and son clashed.

* * *

"...Wha... what?"

Hearing that your whole clan was planning a coup against the village in which you lived in was not a pleasant experience for Satsuki, or for anyone else, for that matter.

Mikoto and the Hokage had told her everything about the coup. Its conception, the reason why it's created, the animosity that the clan held against the village's government, and then, they told her about the solution that the Hokage and his peers had devised to solve it.

And _that _was no more pleasant compared to the aforementioned revelation about the coup. If not more horrid and appalling.

So it was no surprise that at the end of it, she was very much disturbed, and horrified. "...I-Itachi-nii... h-he's... No... No no no, Itachi-nii can't... he can't do that! He's not...! ...He's not that kind of person."

Mikoto and Hiruzen looked appropriately speechless as their head were tilted slightly downwards. Now that she knew what's going on and what will happen next, they didn't know what to say.

But Naruto did, "...I don't like this either Satsuki. And I know that they," he extended his hand towards Mikoto and Hiruzen, "aren't okay with it either. I _hate _this. I hate being incapable of doing something that could benefit those who deserved it. ...With all that I could do, I... just couldn't save more of those worth saving within your clan."

"Naruto, please..." Mikoto said in a soothing, placating manner, "Don't blame yourself. It's our clan's fault, not yours. We are too prideful, too stubborn in our cause. And now we're paying the price. Each and every one of us." she said, saddened by the current events.

Satsuki was taking it hard. And like anyone whose view of the world around her had been shattered, she's refusing to accept it, 'No... no, this is absurd! What is this? A bad dream? A nightmare? If so, please... please, wake me up! Anyone?! Please?!'

Her pupils shrunk, her skin was pale, her breath was ragged, and she was sweating profusely. The revelation proved to be too much for her to handle. She placed her hands on the front side of her head, covering the upper side of her face.

"This... this isn't happening..."

Mikoto, Hiruzen, and Naruto turned to Satsuki, who became more and more unstable as time passed, "Satsuki?" Mikoto asked.

A moment later, after Satsuki didn't even hear her mother's call, her 'symptoms' began to act up again.

Purple-colored, plasmic-like energy began to come out from her body. But she didn't even seem to notice this, as she went on to say; "This isn't happening... no, this... this is not happening, this _can't_ be happening...!"

The other three within the room were all shocked at what they were seeing, "S-Satsuki?" Mikoto said, shocked at what she's seeing. Her daughter, exhibiting something that she had never seen before, "Satsuki... what's wrong with you? Are you alright?"

Then, as she asked worryingly, she went to touch her shoulder.

Which was a big mistake.

Her eyes narrowed, because in her current disturbed state, she wanted no one to try to console her, "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

She didn't mean for it to happen. When she batted her mother's hand away and extended her hand towards her, the purple energy formed a projectile that would hit her right in the stomach and lethally wound her...

Which what would have happened had Naruto wasn't in the room.

The energy would have sent her flying several feet away and made her crash into the wall behind her, but Naruto's skin was far more resilient than a normal human's.

It only took a second and a half. He saw it coming towards Mikoto, and he reacted by sprinting, stopped in front of Mikoto, and then he extended his hand to block the energy projectile.

He blocked it as if it were a simple ball that was thrown for him.

But the aftereffect was not expected.

It created a form of a kinetic wave that shook everyone and everything within the room, Mikoto and Hiruzen were thrown several feet back from where they stood due to it, and the nearest objects either fell, moved or tilted from their previous place.

Only Naruto and Satsuki was left standing. The latter due to how a protective bubble made from the same substance was formed around her body and protected her when it happened, while the former was due to his extraordinary durability and sense of balance.

She looked at her hands and realized what she just did, "...No... Oh no, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry... It wasn't..."

When she saw her mother behind Naruto, looking at her with what seemed to be fear in her eyes, she was also struck by fear. Fear that she had caused her mother to be afraid of her, because of what she just did, '...No...'

At first, she staggered. She took a few steps backwards, away from them... And then, she turned away from the others and ran away towards the door.

There was a moment of stunned silence. Naruto was, understandably, left his mouth opened slightly. 'That... that's not a normal Jutsu was it? It's something else. Could she be...?'

Before he could finish that train of thought, he realized his surroundings, and the first thing that he did was to make sure Mikoto and Hiruzen was okay.

Firstly, a woman's well-being should be ascertained first. So she went to Mikoto, and asked her, "Are you okay? Are you injured or anything?"

It took her a moment before she finally let her eyes turn to Naruto after she had been staring at the spot where Satsuki had stood, "...I... I'm fine. I was not that hurt, thank you."

"Can you get up?"

Mikoto nodded, "Yes. I'm fine Naruto-kun. Go check on the Hokage. He might need more medical attention than I am."

Naruto, heeding her words, immediately went to the downed Hiruzen, "Old man, are you alright?"

Hiruzen grunted, "Hngk...! I'm not sure... Maybe some bones were cracked. I'm an old man after all, these old bones aren't as good as they used to be." he said wryly.

Naruto only shook his head at the old man's remark, "Well, can you stand up?"

It took some effort on his part, but after a few seconds accompanied with grunts made out of pain, and Naruto providing some assistance, Hiruzen could lift his back up, "Well... though it's not that good anymore, this body still has some power left."

Naruto sighed out of relief, "...Well, good." he said, "But what Satsuki did, that was not a Jutsu of any kind, was it? That was... a manifestation of energy. It might be possible that she's..."

He trailed off as he smiled at the possibility that he was not the only kid with powers that made him different, even compared to a Shinobi.

But then he realized how... fearful she was, how traumatized she was, knowing that she inadvertently hurting her mother because she couldn't control it. She didn't have the luxury of figuring out the offensive capability of her power through some means that didn't hurt anybody else.

Unlike him. Because unlike her, he was in his right state of mind when he decided to figure out the extent of his strength and as such, he had placed some precautions. Knowing this, Naruto had an idea of how scared, confused, and bewildered Satsuki currently was.

"Naruto-kun..." Mikoto said as she slowly raised herself up, "What's... what's going on with Satsuki? That purple energy, what was that?"

Hiruzen then added his insight, "Naruto... she might be a person similar to you. Someone capable of... doing things that even I do not know possible."

"...You mean there are others like me?" Naruto asked.

"Two of them, if Satsuki were indeed different like you." Hiruzen said before he grunted in pain as he lifted himself up, after a moment, he turned to Mikoto and said; "You don't seem to know about this beforehand, Mikoto-san."

"No, I do not..." Mikoto said, "I never knew that Satsuki could do... that. What was that?"

"If my guess is right..." Naruto said, "I think that was her unique power. Some kind of... energy generation and conversion." he looked at the palm of his right hand that he had used to block the energy projectile, the skin was still a bit red due to how powerful it was. "She could convert her chakra into a malleable energy field that could be both destructive and protective."

"Fascinating." Hiruzen muttered. "So that means each one of you is unique, Naruto."

"...E-even if I still don't understand this completely..." Mikoto said, focusing on the more important matter at hand, "I'm more concerned about my daughter's whereabouts. Where is she going?"

* * *

_Minutes before..._

Satsuki didn't know what to do when she got out of the Hokage's house.

She had hurt her mother. Her fearful expression when she looked at her... She didn't take that well. Not by a long shot.

Her mind, reeling from the recent revelation about her clan and what she just did, no matter how involuntarily it was, had ordered her to leave the premises as quick as she could.

But now that she got out, she didn't know the next step that she should take.

However, she did know that she didn't dare to go back inside. Fearing the response of her mother, the Hokage, and most of all, Naruto.

'...But... he blocked it with just his hand. Is he... different, like me?' She wondered.

Before she could think about that further however, her train of thought was interrupted when she remembered about her brother. More precisely, about what he had allegedly been ordered to.

The thought of her clan being massacred by their own member, her brother, was something that she didn't want to be true.

And with her mental state in complete disarray, her rational thought was suppressed and so, she did the most sensible thing that she could think of at that moment.

She ran towards the Uchiha district, out of the need to ensure that what she had been told was not true.

* * *

_Meanwhile..._

Despite his father's handicap, Itachi found that he was an impressive combatant. Unarmed as he was, their fight made him realize that Fugaku became a leader of the Uchiha not just through political maneuvers, but also through his combat capability and strategical thinking.

Itachi had seen the latter when his father managed to create and maintain the rebellious group without public knowledge and limited resources. Though he had to do some questionable deeds and methods due to desperation, it was nevertheless impressive.

It was only due to the village's suspicion regarding the Uchiha's loyalty that they were found out. And they never realized it.

Until they were systematically murdered one by one.

Meanwhile, Itachi had already experienced a little bit of Fugaku's combat capability through some sessions of spar when he was little. However, having Fugaku attack him with the intent to kill was a whole nother' story.

The reason why Fugaku attacked him was not out of desperation. But due to him enacting a last stand as the targeted Uchiha left alive. His wife had betrayed him and brought their daughter with her and his son had murdered the rest of their clansmen, so in a way, he had nothing else to live for.

If he were already branded for imminent execution, then he would at least go out fighting. Defiant to the end.

And he did stand tall until the very end. Until Itachi drove his sword to his stomach. Until he felt his own blood coming out from his mouth, trailing down from his lips into his chin and then dripped towards the floor.

Then, after Itachi stabbed him, his son pulled his sword just as quick as he stabbed him.

But even with the trauma of being impaled with a particularly sharp object, Fugaku still stood his ground out of his own willpower. He was silent, his eyes unfocused, it was as if he was trying to stay at the land of the living a while longer, even if it were just for a second.

He looked at the location of his wound, and then, he looked at Itachi.

Then he opened his mouth, wanting to say something. But all that came out was ragged breaths.

He then closed his mouth, gulped, painfully to add, and then he tried to speak.

But before he could talk, he finally fell. First, he fell to his knees, he then tried to keep himself that way, but then, as his life-force was starting to leave his body, he found, faintly, that he's no longer able to command his body to move as he wanted to.

Finally, he fell on his stomach, unable to utter any last words.

Itachi looked at the corpse of his father. At the blood pouring out from his wound at a large amount, at the eyes that were now devoid of life.

And there were no emotions apparent on Itachi's expression upon seeing the sight. Due to the fact that once he had been given an objective, no matter how morally reprehensible it was, as long as it would have a form of benefit that could last for years to come, he would do it.

Emotion was a familiar concept to him, being a human and all, but Itachi had had the training to quell many of those emotions, if not suppress them. And it was one of the many things in which he was very proficient in.

Though... he had to admit that he still felt that little tug in his proverbial 'heart' when he killed them all. He just chose to quell and then ignore it entirely.

But he still decided to at least hold a moment of quiet vigil. His mission was done, so he could at least do this little thing. For his father, and for his fellow clansmen.

He recognized that it was hard to justify what he did. He knew that he had done something wrong. Something unconscionable. But he hoped that to the eyes of someone who knew the details that led to this event, they would see that the line between 'right' and 'wrong' was not clear.

Perform a genocide, prevent a larger scale war.

Like a balance scale, which will tip in favor for the larger, heavier object, the weight of the human lives at stake _and _maintaining the peace was heavier compared to the bruised pride of a few hundred. Perhaps, if one were to know the details regarding his action and what preceded it, it could be accepted as a necessary measure.

There would be debates regarding the moral of this event, that's for certain. But for now, it was of no matter.

What's done is done. Let them judge him based on what they know, limited as they might be. And now... it was time for him to leave.

But as it happens... The time he took for a moment of vigil was the time needed for his sister to come and see him grasping the sword that took their father's life, with his blood still staining the steel of his blade.

It was a moment that Itachi and Satsuki will not forget for the rest of their lives.

* * *

"How could you?!"

It was the only question that she could ask him after seeing what her brother had done.

When she finally arrived at the Uchiha district, she was spooked by how derelict, empty, and abandoned it seemed. Despite the liveliness that she had seen just yesterday, even during nighttime.

It was as if she had stumbled into a ghost town. An unfamiliar, frightening place that sent chills down her spine just by walking into it.

The eeriest part was that this was not an unfamiliar place. Its familiarity to Satsuki was unnerving in that it felt unnatural, seeing the district after hearing what had to be the most horrifying thing that her mother ever said to her.

Even if there were no dead bodies lying around, even if there were no trail of blood, the silent neighborhood of the district was made scarier by what she feared as the truth.

And now, she knew that her fear wasn't just a product of her mind. It was real.

"It is a necessary measure, Satsuki..." said her brother, his face lacked a discernible expression, instead, there was only a cold glare, that he's directing towards her, a glare made by his Sharingan, which was currently shifting, changing, transforming.

"I do not know who told you... But I hope that someday, you'll understand why I had to do this."

Though Satsuki saw the different shape of the Sharingan, she did not care for it at all. All that she cared about was that her brother had shown a side of himself that he had never shown in front of her before.

The side that made him able to kill their father and their own clansmen without any visible remorse apparent in his expression.

"Mom told me. And the Hokage." Satsuki began, "...I thought... I thought that it was a lie. That you won't be able to do this. That you can't. Because you are not this kind of a person.

"You're a kind man, brother. Always was... But this... How...? How could you kill them all, and show no remorse?" she asked.

"...Because it is my mission." Itachi said, "I know how atrocious this is, Satsuki. But I have made my peace with it. Judge me however you like. Hate me, throw me away from my pedestal, you are welcome to do so. If you think that what I did cannot be justified by any reason whatsoever, then so be it."

Satsuki never knew about his dedication towards his ideal. Towards the idea that peace is something worth killing for. And she never knew how far he would go to adhere to that ideal.

And so, she was mortified. But more than that, she was angry. "...I can't believe you..."

Itachi sighed, and with the intention to leave without saying anything more, he turned his back away from her and was about to leave through the back door to perform a Shunshin.

But before he could reach it, Satsuki's shouting, and the subsequent humming noise stopped him, "Brother! Don't you dare leave!"

He turned and saw Satsuki covered in purple-colored energy field that shimmering around her body. His eyes widened at seeing what he could only assume as some sort of strange manifestation of her chakra.

"...Satsuki, you..."

This time, she noticed the purple plasmic energy, but she was too angry to care, too disappointed in her brother's indifference towards what he did, and too saddened by the destruction of her brother's image that she had held for long to care about it.

Her eyes narrowed, her fists clenched, and it was as if she's angry for both her brother and herself. The former because of what he did, and the latter because of her inability to completely hate her brother after hearing the reason from her mother and the Hokage.

He was just fulfilling an order. The order would prevent a bigger catastrophe. These sentences, along with several others that shared the same meaning, kept echoing inside her head.

She could not bring herself to hate her brother. No matter how much she wanted to. Not after knowing his reason.

Then, the sound of the front door being opened abruptly made them turn. And there was Naruto, who distracted Satsuki for a moment, a moment that was proven to be enough for Itachi to leave.

He only got a second head-start however, if not two seconds. As Satsuki immediately tried to follow him.

The key word being _tried. _As Satsuki was stopped by Naruto, who suddenly got in front of her in the span of a second.

"No! Satsuki, let him go." he said to her.

"Naruto, get the hell out of my way!" She said, her energy field flaring in response to her anger. She then tried to move him out of the way, but he just won't budge, no matter how much she tried to push him out of the way.

"No. Satsuki, let it go. What are you going to do if you do catch up to him, huh? What are you going to say?" he asked her.

"That's my business! Get out of my way Naruto, or else!" she said before she extended her hand, trying to scare him off with her energy field...

But she inadvertently created an energy beam that pushed him several feet away and creating a ripple effect due to how it interacted with the air surrounding it. A destructive ripple effect that destroyed some parts of the house.

She was horrified by what she did without her own volition. Once again, she hurt someone, but this time, she knew that she meant to hurt him, unlike before.

Satsuki, who still wasn't as lucid and rational as one would like herself to be, decided to continue chasing after her brother, thinking that the fact that he shrugged off her energy projectile once would allow him to survive this one just as easily.

She ran, as fast as she could, to find him.

And she did find him. As he was standing in the street just outside their house. Illuminated by the full moon behind him, he stood, as if waiting for her to come.

"...What was that, little sister? That wisp-like, glowing energy?" Itachi asked, as if truly curious.

"...I don't know it myself." Satsuki admitted, "It's... a symptom of mine... I've been hiding it from everyone. ...Even our parents."

"I see." Itachi said, "Why do you persist in chasing me, Satsuki? What do you hope to accomplish with this?"

Satsuki, deep down inside her, knew that there was nothing that she could gain from relentlessly chasing him. That there was nothing that she could do about what had happened, for everything he did, he did out of orders. Orders that would not see the light of day.

What would the act of chasing her brother accomplish? Knowing that he consented, and perhaps, more poignantly, _volunteered_ to do this heinous act. All in the name of maintaining peace.

...

But... perhaps there's something that she really wanted to do. Something that she could accomplish.

"...I want to see your regret." Satsuki said, her resolve renewed.

"...What did you say?"

"I want to see your remorse." Satsuki said once more, with more conviction this time, "I want you to show me an expression that shows what you really feel inside. I know you, Itachi-nii. The brother I know...? He won't do this and then feel nothing afterwards. He's not a heartless person."

Itachi blinked twice. The only thing that would indicate that he could and _did _feel something. And even then, it was very vague of him to do.

"The brother that you know is nothing more than a lie, Satsuki." Itachi said, his tone calm, collected, but somehow, unnatural to hear. "He is only a smokescreen. This is the real-"

"Cut that bullshit Itachi-nii!" Satsuki yelled, more out of anger this time, "...I'm going to make you show me your regret. Even if you don't want to show it."

Satsuki then extended her hand, and through her sheer willpower, she created an energy projectile that she targeted towards her brother.

An explosion followed soon afterwards. It was not very large, not enough to destroy a whole building, but it could kill a normal man and someone who stood beside him.

She thought that her brother had escaped the projectile before it could even hit him. That he had used his agility to avoid that energy blast of hers. So she suspected that he would be missing when the smoke cleared.

But when it did, she was more shocked at what she saw.

Her brother was still there. Still standing. Unyielding, and still lacking in expression as before...

But he had extended her arm right before the energy projectile hit him. And he created a similar energy field that covered his whole body. Its color was red, and a part of it was shaped like a shield, floating right in front of him.

Silence reigned over their surroundings. Satsuki was shocked at what she'd just seen, her brain could barely register what's going on.

Itachi then called off the energy field. And nonchalantly, he said; "Do not chase me Satsuki. You're not strong enough."

His sister noticed that Itachi's Sharingan had changed its shape. The three tomoe gathered in a circle that accompanied each of his pupils were gone, and it was replaced by a sinister-looking three-pronged Shuriken-like pupils.

"...H-..H-how...?"

"Let's just say that you are not the only Uchiha who had strange 'symptoms' like this before." Itachi said. He then turned his back and said; "I shall say it once more: Do not. Follow me. Satsuki."

He then turned his head to look at her with her menacing glare and said; "You are not ready."

Satsuki was rendered speechless thanks to what Itachi had shown her. She couldn't even think about a proper retort. "If you are so determined to do what you so desire, then the next time we meet... _If _we ever will... I hope that you would be strong enough to face me. To do otherwise would be suicidal for you."

Then, using his Shunshin, Itachi disappeared. Leaving Satsuki to stare at where he had stood just a second before.

Her brother was just like her. He was able to manifest an energy field that had the same properties like her. Except that he used it far more skillfully. He had mastered it for quite some time, considering how he could create a _construct _out of it.

"Satsuki!"

The sound of her mother's voice coming from behind brought her out of her reverie. She turned towards her mother's voice, and found her looking as if she had been exhausted from doing something before she arrived.

"...Mom..."

Then, the sound of the door leading to the interior of her house being opened from the inside diverted the attention of the mother and daughter.

And they saw Naruto, who looked rather worse for wear, considering that his shirt was now in tatters. But otherwise, he was fine. Besides some reddened skin here and there, but then again, they are progressively getting better.

"That... kinda hurt." Naruto remarked wryly, "Not that I wouldn't heal, but... Never mind. ...Is your mind clearer now, Satsuki?"

It was, in fact, clearer. And because of that, she didn't dare to look at him in the face. In her fit of anger, she had hurt Naruto, for the sake of trying to satisfy her blind wrath that brought her into a fit of slight insanity.

Noticing this, Naruto walked closer as he said; "Look, I don't blame you, okay? You were angry, confused, vengeful even. I understand why you lashed out. I'm a little bit hurt physically, but otherwise, I'm fine. In fact, I'm already healing. See?" he said with a more cheerful tone in his attempt to assure her.

"...I'm sorry..." Satsuki said as she tilted her head down, noticing his attempt to lighten the mood, but could not forgive herself for what she had done.

"It's alright." Naruto said, "Look, neither me or your mother blamed you for inadvertently hurting us. You got no control over it, we understand that. Don't we Mikoto-san?"

Mikoto responded by saying; "Yes. We do. Satsuki, I'm not angry at you, and I'm not angry about what you did. You had no intention of hurting us. Right? So don't worry."

"...But..." Satsuki said as she gathered the courage to look at Naruto, "I did deliberately hurt you... I..."

"C'mon, don't beat yourself over it." Naruto said as he got close enough to grasp her shoulder, "I'm not angry at you. And if I'm not, then you shouldn't be this hard on yourself."

Satsuki was a little relieved at that. But nevertheless, it couldn't change the fact that she had attacked Naruto out of blind anger. And so, she could not offer him a smile or something to say.

Then, she felt another hand grasping her other shoulder, and she saw that it was her mother, "We're here with you, Satsuki. And... I too, must apologize. For doing what I did."

Performing a genjutsu on her own daughter, Mikoto had also berated herself for taking the easiest, fastest way to get Satsuki to safety. "I'm sorry." Mikoto said, "I just thought that I did what was best. That putting you to sleep so that you could be taken to safety without any hassle would be the best course of action..."

Satsuki felt a little betrayed at that. But she recognized that her mother was just worried sick over her, and so she did what she thought best. "...It's okay mother." Satsuki said softly, half of her was telling the truth, but half of her was not genuine.

And Mikoto recognized it as it were. So she could only smile sadly as she hugged her daughter, crying all the way.

Her daughter responded by hugging her mother back. And so the mother and her child, two of the three last Uchiha in the world, cried as they stood in the middle of their district that was now filled with the corpses of their fellow clansmen.

Watching the sight from a few feet away after he took a few steps back to let them have this moment for themselves, Naruto couldn't help but frown as he crossed his arms together.

'...In the end... is this all worth it...?'

Perhaps. Maybe. These words were the only acceptable answers to that question. In this circumstance, there are no absolute right or wrong answers.

There are only opinionated answers.

And to Naruto, all this massacre... Was an extreme solution brought about by the stubbornness of the opposing sides.

He could not find anything that could redeem this act in his eyes. But he acknowledged that it's the only viable option left if one wanted to maintain the stability of the village.

'Doesn't mean that I have to like it.'

* * *

There was a reason why Naruto came quite late into the fray despite having superior speed compared to the Hokage or Mikoto and despite knowing immediately where she would go after Mikoto asked the question.

The kinetic kickback that Satsuki had caused hurt the old man more than Naruto initially thought. And _then, _add to the fact that Naruto considered Hiruzen's condition as crucial that he took it upon himself to get him to the hospital.

_Then. _Add another hindering factor, which was the sudden influx of Shinobies that came just after Naruto decided to fly him over to the hospital.

Apparently, the Shinobies tasked to patrol the Hokage residence was ordered to take a day off by Hiruzen. But their sense of duty called them into action when they were informed that there was a spike of energy coming from the interior of the mansion.

It took more than just a few minutes to assure them that nothing was wrong. And _T__hen, _came his advisors, Homura and Koharu, who strolled into the mansion with only a hint of concern on their face and more of a 'I knew this would happen one way or another, sooner or later.' kind of expression on their faces.

Then things got a lot more convoluted. In which there was a lot of arguments, yelling, frustrations, and most of all, wasted time.

But in the end, Hiruzen was brought to the hospital, in which he was accompanied by Homura and Koharu. Hiruzen's former teammates-turned-advisers were there to berate him for not informing them of his deal with Mikoto...

To which, he replied, _"I might have taken a gamble when I chose not to tell you of what I had chosen to do. But I'm not blindly determining my odds of winning nor am I jumping to worst possible conclusions without any attempts to resolve things peacefully. _

_"Unlike you two, who could only see the bad side in other people instead seeing their inherent goodness and wanting to go the extra mile to make a peaceful solution. So save your condemnation and condescension, I won't hear any of it. Least of all, hearing it from you two, who had lost the ideals that Hashirama-sensei had taught us and adopted the skewed ideals of Tobirama-sensei._

_"Even he, despite the actions that he took to cage and supervise the Uchiha when he became the Hokage, believed in the inherent goodness of every man until his death, even _for_ the Uchiha. Or have you two forgotten about Shisui's father, Kagami, whom he trusted with his life?"_

Knowing Hiruzen's stubbornness, they decided to change the topic. Though they did took notes of what he had said for further contemplation. After that, they then began to talk about something that they had discussed several days ago.

After a certain ANBU came to him, showing powers that no other Shinobies had, along with the revelation of Naruto, Hiruzen wanted to create a new group of some sort. Starting with the ANBU and Naruto.

"It's not a very convincing idea." said Koharu, showing her disapproval, "Though we know what she's capable of is something that no other Shinobi could even accomplish, and that the Uzumaki boy's physical powers are far beyond that of a normal human, two is not a sufficient number to create a specific cell for them only."

"And not to mention that if you wanted a special ops group, we already have the ANBU for that." Homura said, "It's impractical and redundant to make another when we already have one."

"It's not a special task group of any kind. What I have in mind is creating a group of differently-powered individuals not just for the benefit of the village. But for their benefit as well." Hiruzen said, "We are facing individuals with powers that we, as a normal Shinobi could not replicate, at least, not perfectly. And the first thing that would come to our mind when faced with that situation would be 'How could we control them?'"

"The answer is..." Hiruzen trailed off before answering; "We can't. Not completely. The best that we could do is to regulate them with rules and protocols. But another thing that we could do... is to let them govern themselves. Under supervision of course."

"Are you suggesting that we allow a creation of a group of these... 'different' individuals without any direct involvement of the government?" asked Homura, a bit baffled by what his former teammate was implying.

"Have you lost your mind, Hiruzen?" asked Koharu, "The idea is ridiculous. They, like any other group, should be put under the authorization of Konoha, not... allowing them to just be supervised without any kind of direct influence from us."

"...Let me ask you, my comrades." Hiruzen said, his tone of voice low, but commanding, "Why are we allowed to govern the ANBU and any Shinobi that we have in Konoha? Why can the other Kage and their councils do the same for theirs?"

After a second of silence, Hiruzen answered; "It is because we, like them, are Shinobi. We are among the highest ranks because we are far more skilled, powerful, and sometimes, intelligent than most of them. The difference between them and us is the degree of authority, prowess, strength, and experience that we have, and for that, we are allowed to govern them.

"But what makes Naruto and the ANBU different... is that they are capable of doing things... that even _we _cannot do." Hiruzen said, "_She _could very well defeat us in a fight despite of our combat experience because of what she could _see. _Naruto could destroy this village if he, out on a whim, wanted to do so because of his strength and speed. And he could take to the sky, as if a bird, better than that even, like it was a normal thing for a human to do.

"These people are different. And the way I see it, we just don't have the right to rule them. But guiding them... is a different story altogether. And _that _is what I want to achieve." Hiruzen finished, "I do not aim to make them useful... I aim to make them _better _than us. Better than our petty feuds. Better than our suspicion-based paranoia. Better than our hunger for power.

"I still believe in the inherent goodness of every person... And I want these people to be better compared to us. Because if they are that much more capable and powerful compared to us... Then they must have a much greater sense of responsibility. If not, then we must teach them that. To me... _that, _is far more important than their usefulness to the village or the Shinobi world as a whole."

"...In essence," Koharu began, "You do not want to make them a spec-ops team. You wanted to create a new community. A new clan."

"Yes." Hiruzen answered, "But to be more precise... I want to create a unity."

* * *

A day and a half later, the atmosphere felt quite heavy in Konoha.

Itachi had been quite thorough and discreet when he was doing his act. Every corpses indicated that he had performed several, subsequent assassinations that caught nearly everyone off-guard.

Those that he had to kill out in the open were then disposed of, along with those that he had killed within their own homes. As was said, he had been thorough in his act. As expected of a man able to kill his whole kin without batting an eye.

The whole public had been informed of what had happened. Though not of its cause. And whose orders, whose permission, that Itachi got that made him perform such an act.

Villain. Lunatic. Heartless bastard. These were the words that someone who knew about the Uchiha Massacre would use when describing Itachi now.

But to those who knew the... _sensitive _details of the event would say, -under no scrutinizing eyes and ears of course-, that Itachi was a complicated figure at best, and a ruthless extremist at worst.

Satsuki's opinion... stood in the middle.

She was still having a hard time at accepting that her clan's number had been 'severely cut down', so to speak. But the fact that it was her brother who did this was something that she had a harder time in coping with.

Her mother had tried her best to console her. But what she needed was time... and a little bit of space.

Along with a little bit of a much-needed session of workout to burn off all the lingering feelings inside of her.

So it should be no surprise to see her alone at a training ground, practicing multiple combat movements that seemed rather experienced.

From the amount of sweats that she had accumulated, it was reasonable to assume that she had been there for quite a long time. And it wouldn't only be reasonable, it was the truth. She _had _been there for hours.

And considering that the sun had barely come up, she didn't have any sleep whatsoever last night.

Just like the night after the massacre of her clan.

It had been a day and a half since the massacre. And Satsuki had been silent that whole time. Her mother tried to break her silence, to try and re-connect with her daughter, but seeing that she had been largely unresponsive, she decided to give her a bit more time.

She was silently grateful for that. Because she... just didn't know what she should do with or say to her as of now.

Though forgive was too optimistic of a word to use in describing her feelings towards her mother, she had at least accept that her mother had no power to stop it from happening. Not after so many years passed without anyone from either side attempting to think of a peaceful solution while constantly at odds with each other.

And even though Satsuki had no close emotional connection with the other member of her clan, losing so many people, some of them were people that she knew quite well, within the span of one night was... not an easy thing to forget.

But there was another thing that bothered her.

Besides her mother, the one person that she wanted to be beside her to at least try and comfort her was nowhere to be found after that fateful night.

Naruto.

His absence was very well noticed by her as he didn't even make any attempts to meet her after that fateful night despite what he knew about why it happened and how she would feel at this moment. Granted, she had no reason to believe that he's deliberately avoiding her, but... his absence was kind of painful for her.

Which added the fuel that made Satsuki keep on trying to burn off the agitation through physical exertions.

It was now ten-fifty a.m. in the afternoon. And Satsuki could be seen on a rather empty park, performing her combat movements rather well, despite the lack of sleep and despite the small amount of nutrition that she had been taking. She didn't even feel a tiny bit exhausted.

Hell, even her senses were still sharp. Though her agitation did dull her concentration slightly. One simple downside, not really something to fuss about. At least, according to her.

She needed the distraction after all, so why should she complain?

...

...Still. It would be nice if he were to come to her any day of the week now...

Then, as if the world heard what she wanted and wanted to grant what she wished, she heard the sound of something arriving in her proximity.

It's not the sound of someone walking. It was the sound of something landing after it had flown from where it took off to go where she now stood.

"Satsuki."

It was _his _voice.

She turned to him, hoping that her face didn't betray her emotion. But even she herself knew that it was a false hope.

"...Naruto."

He was wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt, colored in orange and black. He wore a pair of simple blue-colored trousers, and a pair of black shoes. He looked no worse for the wear, but he did look rather worried for her.

And that made her angry. If he were worried, then why didn't he visit her at all yesterday? What could he have that prevented him from doing so? And what kind of excuses that he had prepared to try and defuse her anger?

"I'm sorry." was the first thing that came out of his mouth, "For not being there for you at all yesterday."

Satsuki's anger suddenly diminished. But she still kept it enough to say: "...Where were you?" she asked. Her tone of voice indicated that she wanted... no, needed, to know.

"I was called by the Hokage. Along with my mother. He said... things. A lot of things." Naruto said, "It has something to do with what I... _we, _can do."

"...About that..." Satsuki began, "What... is it, that you have? Are you... like me?"

Naruto smiled as he nodded, "You can say that. I'm... well, if you're asking what I can do, then I'll say... that I can do things that other people can't."

She smiled a little at that little quip, "Then I guess we're alike somewhat." she remarked.

The raven-haired girl then slightly lifted her right hand and summoned a form of pulsing energy field that covered her hand. "What would you call this, Naruto?" she asked.

"Energy projection." Naruto answered almost immediately, "The old man told me that our power came from the difference in which our chakra manifests itself compared to Shinobies. In my case, it comes with extreme physical augmentations, things like strength, speed, stamina, things like that."

She remembered how _fast _he was when she wanted to chase her brother after Naruto distracted her for a split second. In that equal amount of time, he went from the door to her front without any sounds of footsteps, but a sound of something moving _so _damn fast that there was only a sound of a whistling wind.

"While with you," Naruto said, oblivious to her thoughts, "It's manifesting itself in some form of... energy field. That could either destroy or protect, depending on what you want it to be."

"...Hm." she noncommittally muttered as she looked at her so-called 'energy field', "...Say, Naruto..." she began as she called off the energy field, reminded by something, "If our chakra manifests differently compared to Shinobies... then is it possible that the methods that they use to mold it into a Jutsu would not be as efficient with us?"

"It's possible." Naruto acquiesced. "I mean, I can't even perform any of the basic Jutsu properly."

'Well, that's one thing that has been made clear.' Satsuki thought with a smile, knowing that the problem with her inability to perform a Great Fireball Technique was really not because of a physical deficiency of some kind.

But after a moment of silence, Satsuki said; "...So what did the Hokage show you?" she asked, remembering what made him unable to check on her for more than a day.

"As I said before, it has something to do with us." Satsuki's eyebrow twitched slightly, "Our abilities, I mean." she deflated a bit, "It turns out that we might not be the only two people who have this kind of thing."

"...What?" she uttered out, "You mean... there's more people like us out there?"

"Yes. But the ones that he knew for now was just one. Not including us of course. And he would introduce her to us tomorrow, at two o'clock in his office." Naruto said, "More will come, I'm sure. ...That is, if you want to come."

She wanted to come. No. She _needed _to come.

"I do want to."

It was just yesterday that she's assuming that Naruto was just like her. And now, it turned out that the Hokage had something planned for people like the two of them. Different individuals gifted with powers unseen before.

She had an ability that only few people had. Her clan had been decimated. Her faith in her mother had been tainted, and it would take a long time for it to recover. But never again will she trust her like she used to. And, her brother was not the man she thought she knew.

She wanted to feel like she belong somewhere.

Naruto smiled, "Great. I'll see you tomorrow then." he said before he added, "Unless you want me to accompany you for today? To make up for yesterday?"

It would be really great. Was what Satsuki thought.

But...

Satsuki sighed as she said; "...Naruto. I... I'll get over it. Sooner or later. With all that has happened, I just... I just want to be alone for a while."

"...Before I came here, Satsuki..." Naruto began, "Me and my mother came to your house. And we met Mikoto-san."

"Oh. ...What did she say?"

"She said that you were avoiding her." Naruto said, his tone was not judgmental, but concerned, "You didn't talk to her at all. You never made any eye contact. And that besides going out of your room to eat or go to the bathroom, you never once wanted to spend some time with her."

There was a moment of tense silence, but Naruto continued; "She said she was trying to get you to open up. But your responses were either to ignore or refuse her outright. ...I know it's none of my business Satsuki. But this won't help you cope with what happened."

Naruto sighed as he said; "Anyway. When all was said, she told me to relay this message for you..."

...

_"I don't expect you to fully forgive me. But I'm more than willing to try as hard as I could. Just... give me a chance. Please..."_

_..._

Satsuki's lips quivered as if she's about to cry when she heard that. And then she heard Naruto say; "...Don't push her away Satsuki. It would be the worst thing that you could do. To her... and to yourself."

After more than just half a minute of silence, Satsuki nodded slightly it was almost unnoticeable, "...Okay."

Naruto nodded, and then, he said; "...I'll give you some time alone like you asked. I'll see you tomorrow Satsuki."

Afterwards, he left. Using his super speed, he disappeared right before her eyes, and the faint sound of a gust of wind was the indication of his movement.

Seconds after he left, she realized that she didn't feel as energetic as before.

Not because of how Naruto just up and left. She _did _request to be left alone and he was just respecting what she wanted.

But because of what he said about what she's doing to her mother.

Pushing her away, refusing to even acknowledge her attempts to make amends, keeping herself silent... Deep down, she agreed with Naruto. This was not the best decision that she had ever made. And that she needed to take action to prevent it from going worse before it's too late.

'...I have to make things right.'

* * *

Mikoto Uchiha had been offered many condolences by her acquaintances and friends after they knew what happened.

I'm sorry to hear that. This must be difficult for you. I hope you can get through this. I wish you all the best. These words were repeated by different people so many times that it was almost difficult for her to know which one was genuine and which one was not.

She appreciated the gestures, but because of what she knew, the actions did not elicit any kind of emotion from her.

All that she's feeling regarding the massacre was a sense of emotional numbness because of the sheer amount of her people that was now lost.

Like Itachi, she did not hold an excessive amount of pride for her clan. Without any steady emotional attachment to the so-called 'Pride of the Uchiha', Mikoto was one of the very few that did not support the coup for the sake of attachment to her clan or for glory.

In fact, if she were allowed to be honest she was very much against it. It was not something that was created out of reason but stubborn pride and hunger for power.

They would not create a better place for the Uchiha like Fugaku once told her. They wanted to turn Konoha into a dictatorship governed solely by the Uchiha. Two entirely different things connected only by the former's vagueness.

She only supported the coup due to her being the coup leader's wife. Mikoto loved Fugaku once, at least she thought she did. But after seeing the extent of his obsession for the coup's success and his overbearing pride for his clan, that sentiment diminished. Little by little, bit by bit, until all that was left were indifference.

However, while she grew to no longer care for her husband's endeavor in what he assumed to be a mission to restore Uchiha's greatness, she had been more than worried over what the clan coup would do to her children.

And now she knew what it did.

Her son was gone in a figurative, and almost in a literal meaning of the word. And her daughter was now seeing her in a whole different perspective.

Satsuki had been drawing herself away from her, this she knew. Though she had been trying to initiate a conversation, the tension that hanged in the air, along with her lack of response every time a conversation took place had dissuaded her from trying.

She needed some time to take it all in was what she thought. She needed a little bit of space and time to come to terms with all that had happened. So she decided to give it to her. A little bit of space and time.

But as she's sitting in the living room within a house that only had her as its resident within an empty district that was once filled with people while her daughter was elsewhere, avoiding her entirely, her willpower was slowly breaking apart by the minute.

Sitting on the couch, she stared at the empty table in front of her. Her empty gaze indicated that she was staring at nothing in particular and that her mind was elsewhere.

Though Mikoto did not doubt that telling the cold, ugly truth about the matter to her daughter was necessary and right instead of giving her a lie, she slightly regretted what she did.

'...It would have to be revealed sooner or later.' she thought, trying to justify revealing the planned coup and its grim consequence to Satsuki, trusting that her precocious maturity would enable her to come to terms with what happened.

Mikoto sighed deeply and said to herself; "She just need some time... That's all." It didn't quite convince herself however.

Silence reigned for another few the sound of a door being opened made her turn."Satsuki?" she called out, hoping that it was, indeed, her daughter.

Though there was no answer, the sound of the door being opened and subsequently closed was the indication that someone did enter.

Then when the person came to the living room, Mikoto was glad that it was the one she wanted to see.

"Mom." she greeted rather tersely before she sat beside Mikoto on the couch.

Then an awkward, tense silence followed suit. It was clear, if one were to observe from an outsider's perspective, that both of them wanted to talk to each other, to say something to solve the situation and end the silence.

But the problem was... The heavy atmosphere created by what happened had made them silent.

Something needed to be done. Someone must take the first step. Say the first word. That was all they need to break the proverbial ice.

And it was Mikoto who did it first.

"Satsuki... I... I... assume that... Naruto has relayed my message?"

Not a solid footing, but it would have to do.

Satsuki's response was, "Yes. He did." she answered. Then she looked directly into her mother's eyes and said; "...I don't know what to say mom. With all that you told me, I don't think I could ever look at you the same way again."

And so it came to the crux of the problem.

"I know you only wanted to do what's best for me, you're concerned about my safety. I understand that. But after telling me about what you did... or to be exact, what you _didn't _do to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the first place..."

She trailed off. Though she spoke no more words, it hit Mikoto harder than any harsh words that she could've said.

Collecting all of her willpower, Mikoto said; "That's fair Satsuki-chan. I could've prevented this from happening years ago like you said. And for that, I'll always have that hanging over me. What could have been. What could have happened had I done something and so forth...

"But what's done is done." Mikoto said, her tone of voice filled with finality and sorrow. "While I can't fix my lack of action in the past... I don't want to lose you because of what I did."

She cast her head down as she finished with; "...So whatever you want me to do, Satsuki, I will grant you. Just give me a chance to redeem myself in your eyes. Please."

Mikoto, her mother, was begging. Practically _begging_ her to not leave her.

And it was at this moment that it occurred to Satsuki. That she's not the only one who's having a rough time in dealing with the massacre.

Hell, her mother might be going a harder time compared to her. She personally knew some of the ones her brother had killed, and as such, would feel more saddened by their deaths compared to Satsuki who only knew some of them a little, not even as friends or close acquaintances.

Add the fact that she's having some guilt at her decision to not intervene in some way before everything went to hell, and...

"...Mom." Satsuki began, "I'm sorry."

After another moment of silence that felt more comfortable than the one before, Mikoto said; "W-what are you apologizing for, Satsuki?"

"For being a jerk to you." Satsuki said. "I can't... see you as I did before again, but... You're still my mother. And I've no right to push you away like that. I just... wasn't thinking clearly. I'm really sorry."

Mikoto procured a small smile and said; "...That's okay Satsuki." she said with genuine feeling of relief, "That's okay."

And with that, they hugged.

As no more words needed to be said by either side. Satsuki did not hate her as Mikoto had believed. She was right in that she just needed time.

And now, even though the connection between them had been severely damaged, it was still there.

With time and effort on her part, she's hoping that she could rebuild what was lost between them.

...No.

She _must._

Mikoto hugged her daughter tighter and closer as tears began to come out from her eyes. Deep down, she swore to herself that she would treasure what was left of her family and clan.

Satsuki became her whole world now. And she would go to great lengths to ensure her well-being.

...

* * *

In such a short time, Itachi Uchiha became the most glaring example of a traitor known to the Konoha and some parts of the Five Great Shinobi Countries.

His name had been written into the passage of history as an unrepentant, incredibly skilled mass-murderer that took the lives of nearly every member of his clan.

And as such, it was of no surprise that he became a wanted criminal, searched by those who desire a challenge or the hefty bounty placed on his head as a nuke-nin of Konoha.

However, living in hiding was Itachi's specialty. Along with his ability to blend into crowds and use Henge to appear as anything _but _himself.

Itachi had no problem living on the run. Considering what he had done, out of orders or not, he knew how atrocious of an act it was, and as such, having his citizenship revoked by his own village, known as the black sheep that murdered his whole clan out of sheer spite or just because he could, and living without a proper roof above his head for an indefinite amount of time was quite a bit of a fair exchange.

For stabilizing the village, for keeping the peace of the Elemental Nations, such sacrifices must be made.

'...Satsuki and mother survived the massacre, however.'

It was not stated as a lamentation, something that he should've resolved. Instead, it was stated as a remark filled with a little bit of relief and hope.

His sister and his mother was spared. They were the members of the clan Uchiha in his family besides himself who were not affected by the affliction of the mind that had been plaguing the Uchiha clan for generations.

Two out of hundreds might not be a fair trade, but it was not his decision to make. And it was already decided.

'No need to dwell on what might've been.' he reminded himself as he was walking in a man-made path surrounded by forests, using a Henge to disguise himself as an unassuming merchant, 'Better to focus on what lies ahead my road.'

Thinking about what the future might hold, Itachi was reminded of what his sister told him. And about her 'condition'.

His sister had kept her ability hidden quite well. He had to admit that he was surprised to see her having an ability similar to his own.

Knowing his sister's stubbornness, her desire to see his remorse _could _make her chase him wherever he went. And that was why he urged her to get stronger before facing him again.

As of now, she was just a stubborn child who hadn't tapped into her full potential as of yet. Given time however, she could become someone who could defeat him in fair combat.

...Perhaps it was just a foolish notion.

Maybe he was just humoring his sister's wish to see him showing remorse.

Or maybe... He wanted her to succeed. To be able to force his emotions out into the surface by any means necessary.

Whatever the reason may be, if Satsuki ever came into his path again, then it shall be a battle. That much was certain.

For the moment, however...

Itachi looked towards the sky. He was far from Konoha now, and was not remotely near any kind of settlement. After hiding for more than a day, perhaps he could use another means of transportation besides walking, running or Shunshin?

Closing his eyes while never tilting his head down and still facing towards the sky, he concentrated and concentrated. Leading to the creation of the paper-thin red energy field that surrounded his body.

Moments later, he felt his feet leaving the ground.

Smiling to himself, happy due to how his primal instincts were stimulated by something no normal human could achieve without any external means, Itachi took off to the sky.

Leaving a trail of fire-like energy in his wake.

* * *

**End of Troubled Childhood. **

**To be continued...  
**

* * *

So who foresaw Itachi having a superpower as well? Whoever you are, then congratulations on being quite Genre Savvy.

The way this kind of story would work well is to give the 'villains' a proper set of power as well as the heroes as to make them more menacing. And IMO, superpowered humans, especially on the scale of... let's say, Superman, are just that more powerful, useful, and versatile than a Kage.

A foreshadowing from the very first chapter might give you a clue to know one of the villains from Canon that got superpowers in accordance to the heroes.

And finally, do you know what Satsuki and Itachi's superpower actually is, where did I got the inspiration for it, and why did I choose to integrate that particular superhero's power to them?

The answers to some of the questions should be obvious, while others... not so much.

Well, with all that said, see you at the next chapter!


	5. The Inception

** Disclaimer:** I don't own the anime/manga series known as Naruto.

**VLS: **Deidara will be involved somewhat as I really like his brand of craziness and his obsession with his demented view of what an art is, but I'm viewing him more as a Chaotic Neutral figure instead of an outright villain. All the superhumans are capable to perform Jutsu, but the scope of the Jutsus that they can use are limited, especially if they are born with their powers instead of receiving it when they are old. As for Naruto, he will get some new powers along the way, but he will still be very similar to Superman.

**jacalman: **Thank you, glad to know that there are people who think this is better than the previous one, which is my intention on creating this reboot in the first place.

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Inception.**

* * *

'This may be the start of something great.'

That sentence was what Naruto was thinking as he sat on the roof of his house, early in the morning, a day after he told Satsuki about what the Third Hokage knew about people like them. People who had different kind of powers compared to other Shinobies.

And how today would be the day when they would be introduced to another one of their own.

It was a her. The person was a her. At least, that's what the Hokage told him.

Though he had no other information besides the fact that she had a unique power just like him and Satsuki and that she's quite eager to meet them, Naruto couldn't help but get pretty excited about the prospect of meeting a fellow...

...A fellow what exactly?

'Maybe I should start making names to define what we are.' Naruto thought, realizing that 'Shinobi' might not be the right word to define themselves as. 'Then see what they think about it. I'm not the only one who'll be using it after all.'

Abandoning the train of thought of giving a name for people like them, Naruto heard his mother calling him for breakfast.

And as such, he jumped off the roof, floating mid-fall so that he could land gracefully on the ground below.

Afterwards, he walked towards the glass door on the side of the house leading to the living room adjacent to the dining room and kitchen, where he found his mother preparing some breakfast for both of them, which were simple bread with peanut butter and milk.

"Morning mom." Naruto said to Taji as he sat on one of the chairs, taking one of the bread and then smeared some peanut butter on it before eating it.

"Morning." Taji replied back, "Did you sleep last night?" she asked, "Because I saw that you weren't in your room the whole night. Have you been on the roof the whole time?"

"Actually... I wasn't on the roof the whole night." Naruto answered, "I actually couldn't sleep so I just... went around places. Only got back here half an hour ago. Sorry about that."

While Taji didn't exactly approve, she had experienced this kind of thing many times.

Naruto's physical durability apparently got to the point where sleeping was merely an option instead of a necessity to reinvigorate oneself. And this was not the first time that he decided to forgo sleeping for one reason or another.

And ever since he learned how to fly, every time he couldn't find the urge to sleep, he would use that particular ability to amuse himself until the break of dawn.

So Taji sighed as she said; "Well, saying you're sorry every time you do that making it a bit redundant, considering how many times you did that kind of thing, don't you think?" she asked rhetorically, "So let's just say that if this comes up again, you don't ever have to say sorry afterwards, okay? You don't need to."

Naruto smiled, "Thanks mom." he said as he finished his piece bread, he then grabbed his glass of milk, "So... what do you think about what the old man said? About this little group?"

"...I think that it's a good thing." Taji said, sensing that this was the topic that Naruto was quite eager to talk about, "Getting together with people who share a similarity to you is a wonderful thing, Naruto. Whether it's a similar hobby, interest, and even... disabilities. Though three people is not really a group." she added with a wry smile.

"It'll get bigger." Naruto defended, "I'm sure of that. It's just... _how _we're going to find more people is the problem. It's not like me and Satsuki can just go spread flyers around with the words; 'We're looking for people who can do things that other people can't. P.S.: Not even Shinobies.'" Naruto said.

Continuing that train of thought, Naruto said; "That would attract a lot of people who might not be people like us instead of the ones we want. People who could fully roll their eyes or tongues backwards or something like that."

Taji chuckled and said; "I'm sure you'll figure something out Naruto." she assured him, "Just meet this person first. The rest will come later."

Naruto nodded and drank his glass of milk. As he was drinking it, Taji continued; "So how's Satsuki doing? We haven't had the chance to talk to her after the events of... that night. Is she okay?"

After gulping the last drop of milk, Naruto said; "She's coping. Though the method that she's doing is not a really good one. She's keeping everyone, including her mother, at arm's length. Hopefully things with her and Mikoto-san will get better, now that I've relayed her message."

"Ah yes, I recalled her speaking to you when we're about to leave." Taji said, recalling their visit to Mikoto's house and not finding Satsuki, "What did she wanted to say to her?"

"She said that she'll do everything she can to get Satsuki to forgive her." Naruto said as he cast his head down, "Even though she knew that Satsuki might not fully forgive her."

Taji could only sigh. She could understand the reason why Mikoto did what she did. Taking Satsuki away without telling her what happened first or getting her consent to prevent her from being killed was what any mother would've done if they were in Mikoto's position.

However, she could also understand Satsuki's perspective. Finding out that her mother had been hiding something this big from her, even though it's also for her own good, was not something that one could just take in stride.

"I just hope that she could at least connect with her mother again." Naruto said, "What she did, she did with her safety in mind. If she could understand that... then it's a start. Hopefully she won't continue pushing her mother away."

"I sure hope so son." Taji said with a sad smile.

Mikoto had been a big help ever since she adopted Naruto. She was... her tutor, to say the least, in motherhood. Being a medic-nin didn't instantly mean that she understood parenting and motherhood right off the bat. And as a result of being her friend over these years, it hurt her to see Mikoto going through the horrific event while burdened with guilt.

It was only yesterday morning that she and Naruto went to her house to offer their condolences. And without Satsuki there, Taji could see that she was not holding very well.

_"She just needs time." _was all that Mikoto said regarding her daughter's decision to draw herself away from her.

'Maybe that time has been cut short with Naruto's intervention.' she thought, hoping that it was the case, "Anyway..." she began, diverting the topic of the conversation, "The meeting's supposed to be this afternoon right?"

"Yeah." Naruto nodded.

"So why haven't you been preparing for class?"

That question halted Naruto's thought and movement, as he reacted with complete stillness and silence, as if realizing that he had forgotten something important.

Then he disappeared in a gust of wind and Taji couldn't help but to giggle at how he acted like someone who forgot that this was the day when he's supposed to go to work.

Except that he could get ready in a matter of seconds without even breaking a sweat. Literally.

Seeing him using his powers to do mundane tasks helped Taji with coming to terms with the fact that he's not exactly a normal human. In fact, with a few years of seeing him doing things such as this, Taji considered it as normal for him.

It's just that...

'His mother and father didn't have this kind of power... What caused his chakra to manifest differently than us?'

That was the million Ryou question. Hopefully, what the Hokage was doing might be able to shed some light into the reason why he and others who were like him became this way.

Accepting something and curious to know why something happened or manifested in the first place were two different things after all.

* * *

When Naruto finished changing and wearing a short-sleeved blue t-shirt, a pair of gray pants and a pair of black shoes with orange stripes, he ran to the Academy after a day off that was given due to the tragedy that was the Uchiha Massacre.

When he arrived there, he noticed the absence of the girl whom he had given advice to the other day.

Satsuki Uchiha was nowhere to be found. But Naruto was not that surprised by her absence. Considering what happened, he could understand her desire to not participate in such public activity.

Fully coped with a tragic event was not something that could happen overnight. And that might just be the reason why she was not present. She's not mentally ready still.

So putting that thought behind, Naruto then sat on one of the empty seats in the class, fully intent to let the day pass by until it's two o'clock.

...

Up until recess, the day had been pretty ordinary.

Even with the allowance for the students to the school grounds to play during recess time, Naruto decided to stay in class, enjoying the relatively quiet space that was made possible due to the large amount of students going out to play.

However, just after ten minutes of welcomed tranquility, he was suddenly approached by a couple of girls his age.

One of them was a pink-haired, green-eyed girl who wore a short-sleeved dark red t-shirt with an image of a rose embroided on its center, a pair of blue-colored shorts, and a pair of black sandals. Her name was Sakura Haruno.

She was accompanied by her friend, a girl with pale-blonde hair and pupil-less blue eyes wearing a plain long-sleeved white t-shirt with a pair of red-colored shorts and a pair of blue sandals. She was Ino Yamanaka.

Both of them were best of friends. Often seen doing almost everything together. To the point that it took some effort from their parents to organize the times that they could use to get together and play and the times when they're not allowed to.

"Hey. Naruto... right? Kanzaki Naruto?" Sakura asked, though Naruto kind of figured that it was asked rhetorically.

"That's me." Naruto replied, "What do you want Sakura-san?" It's rare for her to talk to him. So he figured that there must be a reason for her to do so.

"It's about Satsuki." said Ino instead of Sakura, "We... knew what happened. Is she okay?"

Ah. Now Naruto remembered.

Ino and Sakura were Satsuki's friends. After he and Satsuki had their slight fallout, Satsuki made some new friends, and these two were among the ones with whom she could get along with comfortably.

Inwardly, Naruto smiled at their concern. From the looks on their face, Naruto could tell that it was genuine, "She's... doing well, considering what happened. Why do you ask, you two didn't visit her at all yesterday?"

Sakura and Ino fidgeted, "Um... even though we want to, we just... don't know what we should say to her." said the pink-haired girl, "With what she'd lost, I don't think we could... give her the comfort she needs. She has her mother for that. So I said to Ino that we should wait."

"Which I think is nonsense anyway." Ino rebutted rather heatedly, "We're her friends. We should be there when our friends are at the lowest point of their lives. That's what friends are for, right?"

"But I don't think she would appreciate us intruding like that, even if we have good intentions." Sakura said back. "Especially when we couldn't possibly imagine what she's going through right now."

"Then we'll just be there for her. At least let her know that we'll always be available if she needs her friends."

"But-"

"Okay okay." Naruto stopped the girls from going into further argument that might veer off course over time, "That's enough. Both of you mean well, and I think that Satsuki would be happy to know that she has friends like you, who worries over her well-being in such times. It's the intention that counts. Next time, just... be there for her. That's what I would do at least."

Ino and Sakura nodded after a moment of contemplation. "Yeah. I think we should do that." Ino said before whispering to Sakura, "I told you that we should've done that."

"Shut up." Sakura whispered back.

Naruto shook his head at their somewhat vitriolic, but close relationship, then he asked out of curiosity, "Why did you guys ask me about Satsuki anyway?"

"Well... she really likes to talk about you. A lot." Sakura said, "And not to mention, we've seen her glancing at you multiple times."

"And then trying to deny it afterwards." Ino completed Sakura's sentence, "Which was not that very good, surprisingly. Seeing her acting like that, we assumed that you two had some history together. And when we asked her, she only gave a vague answer. But it was enough for us to know that you two are, or _were_ close."

"Which brings us to the next point." Sakura said as she smiled rather mischievously, a smile that was reciprocated by Ino, "What are you two exactly? Friends? Or something other than that?"

It was clear to Naruto that they were as equally curious as they were gleeful. Like a child who can't wait to open their wrapped birthday presents but can't due to it being given a day before his actual birthday.

"We're friends." Naruto said, "Nothing more." he added with a sense of finality.

"Hm..." Ino muttered, seemingly unsatisfied with his answer, "With how she talked every time you became the topic of the conversation, I thought it would be more than that."

"...How exactly did she talk when whatever you're speaking about concerns me in any way?" Naruto asked after a moment of silence, his curiosity piqued.

And with that question, Sakura and Ino procured a smirk that one would have whenever one found out that one's suspicion about someone's shameful secrets were true.

Naruto had been inadvertently caught by their bait.

But they decided to answer anyway. Even if they were acting like a know-it-all as they said these words; "She's more lively I guess. Especially if we had been talking about something that just didn't catch her interest in anyway." Sakura said.

"One time, I said that you were kind of cute." Ino said, her smirk widened as she chuckled, "And she gave me a seething glare afterwards. As if I had been caught red-handed reading her diary without her permission."

"He always defended you whenever we mentioned that your loner-type attitude is a bit annoying sometimes." Sakura said, "A bit emo. No offense." she added as she raised her hand slightly.

"Heh, none taken." Naruto assured her, finding it pretty accurate to describe his attitude and as such, he didn't see it as an insult.

He even regretted starting that phase in the first place. Though he _had_ grown quite comfortable in playing that role.

"I think it's pretty much safe to say that she thinks quite highly of you Naruto." Ino said with a smile, "If she didn't think of you as her best friend, then at the very least, it's something more than that."

"You do know that she kind of likes you though, right?" Sakura asked. "'Cause' she told us that you two used to be quite close."

Naruto sighed, "Yeah. We were." he admitted.

"So... what happened exactly?" asked Ino, her curiosity seemed to be coming out from her concern.

"Yeah, I was about to ask that question myself. Every time we told her to just go and talk to you, she always retreats from doing that very thing by making excuses. Did you two had a fallout or something?" Sakura asked.

The blonde shook his head as he said; "Let's just say that it was not something that I would like to repeat now that I have the chance to repair what I inadvertently broke."

Sakura raised her eyebrows at what he said. While Ino giggled, as if she thought that it was funny.

Which was exactly it. "Hahaha~! It's just... it's just so funny. I remembered that Satsuki said she inadvertently broke the connection that you two had. And here you are, thinking that you did the exact same thing. Kind of ironic really, in a way."

"Huh. You two are a lot more alike than we first thought." Sakura remarked before she procured a smile that did not feel snide or mocking, "Well you know what? I wish you two the best. It seems that we're wrong about you after all." she said as she patted his shoulder twice.

At that, it was Naruto's turn to raise his eyebrows, "What _were_ your first thoughts about me?"

The pink-haired girl shrugged as she said, "Well, we kind of thought you were rather aloof. Even when you're with the dog-boy, you never look very... active, to say the least. In anything."

Ino then added; "Yeah. And not to mention that you seem so introverted and reserved. Combined with how you... look, then one might think that you're a little bit weird. Scary weird." then she added as an afterthought, "No offense."

Naruto merely chuckled and said; "Yeah... I kinda looked like a weirdo, didn't I?"

Sakura and Ino chuckled at his remark, not expecting him to know and admit that due to his introverted attitude that he had been using ever since he found out about his power, he appeared like a scary kid to the eyes of other people.

Especially when one considered the fact that he's quite tall compared to kids his age. Even to Ino or Sakura, who seemed to be experiencing early growth spurts themselves.

Moments later, the bell that signed the end of recess rang throughout the school.

"I think you should get back to your seats. Iruka-sensei can be pretty punctual." Naruto suggested to Ino and Sakura.

"Yeah I think you're right." Ino said before she grabbed Sakura's hand, "Let's go Sakura. And Naruto? Thanks for your advice. And uh... you're not that bad of a guy, you know? You're actually rather good-looking. You just need to show this side of you a bit more. Show that you're not really that aloof or scary."

The girl then shrugged as she said; "Well, that's my opinion anyway. See ya around Naruto."

As the pale-blonde haired girl pulled Sakura, the pink-haired girl, added; "It was nice talking to you!"

Naruto merely smiled and raised his hand and dropped them as Sakura and Ino returned to their respective seats, positioned quite far from his own.

'Satsuki seemed to have made very good friends in my absence.' Naruto thought, glad that she had friends like those two girls, who seemed quite honest and kind.

* * *

It was one o'clock in the afternoon. And in the Uchiha household in which Satsuki considered home, she could be found sitting in the bed located in her room, staring at nothing in particular.

"The Academy's must be over by now." Satsuki muttered under her breath.

She sighed as she closed her eyes, recalling what she had said to her brother before he showed an ability similar to her own.

_"I want to see your regret."_

And she still wanted to. Even if she had to beat the hell out of him, she _will _make her brother show that he's not a person who had eradicated his emotions for the sake of the mission.

Although... the 'beating the hell out of him' part was pretty much impossible as of now. Considering that she barely had a grasp on her own power, unlike her brother, who could create a corporeal object from his energy field.

So first things first... Imitation.

In the past few hours, she had been training. She figured that creating an object from her energy field was the first step that she must took if she wanted to master her power.

While picturing the image of a shield, she had been trying to materialize it. With... varying results.

She extended her hand and let her energy field manifest, then, she tried to shape it by solely picturing a circle-shaped shield inside her head.

After she felt the energy forming into a shape, she opened her eyes...

And found that while the shield was created in the size that she wanted, the shape was oval instead of circle. The shield itself was pulsing wildly, as if trying to break itself into shapelessness.

Sighing rather tiredly, she called off the shield, and with a slight humming noise, the shield was gone.

Exerting the energy field was... quite exhausting. Though she did not exert a large amount of force from any physical muscles, she felt as if she had just finished an uninterrupted 60-minute sprint.

Which, considering her physical capability, was not that much. But it was still pretty jarring, considering that her physical fitness was quite impressive, even to the eyes of an adult like her mother, who had been quite a respected kunoichi during her days as an active ninja.

And despite her 'retirement', as it were, she still kept her body in good shape.

So why did the act of exerting her power tire her so much?

The most plausible explanation was that she was not used to using her power this much. Analogically speaking, she was using a 'muscle' that she hadn't used for quite a long time.

'...Maybe.' she thought as she looked at her hand, reminded of the fact that she was not as used to her power as Naruto was to his.

'But with the proper training, I'm sure I can do it.' Satsuki thought to herself, 'After all, even Naruto had to train before he got to that level, right?'

But then again, she didn't know that for certain. Maybe he didn't have to train too hard, or maybe it took him quite a long time to master it.

Either way... This day will be the beginning. The start of a new chapter in her life.

Hopefully, this one won't be filled with too much tragedy or bloodbath as the last one...

But she could only hope.

* * *

"You were invited by the Hokage to his office?" Kiba Inuzuka asked Naruto about his answer to his question.

The aforementioned question was whether or not Naruto could come with Kiba to the kennel. It's the day when he would be given a dog partner.

Normally, an Inuzuka would be given a dog partner when they were six.

But when his mother, Tsume did just that on Kiba's sixth birthday, the dogs reacted with some hostility towards him when he tried to find the suitable dog to be his partner.

Even with multiple amount of attempts done over the span of the past two years, Kiba still didn't have a dog partner.

The reason why he wanted Naruto to come along was rather simple really.

Even though he had asked the question like it was not something that he considered as a big deal, he wanted someone else besides his mother and sister to give him support.

To be rather frank, after failing so many times, the clan began to think of him as unsuited to be an Inuzuka. Add to the fact that his mother's the head of the clan, then the mental pressure that's burdening him was increased several fold.

At first, he was frustrated, angry, though a little bit worried. Then his trepidation increased and increased with each failure attempts. And seeing that this one was his sixteenth attempt, one had a solid basis to assume that at this point, he's beginning to lose hope.

Knowing these things, Naruto was a little bit regretful that he had to decline.

"Yeah. It's... kind of important. Sorry Kiba."

The young Inuzuka looked rather sullen for a second before he chuckled sheepishly, "Hey, it's no problem. I mean, if the Hokage's involved, it must be important. I don't want to make you miss your appointment."

One trivia about Kiba: He's someone who tend to wear his feelings on his sleeve. And as such, even when he's trying his damnedest, he would inadvertently show what he's feeling. As is the case now.

"Then I guess I'll uh... see you around, yeah?" Kiba rhetorically asked before he began to walk away, "Tell me how it goes with the Hokage afterwards okay?"

And there's one more thing about Kiba. Though he's known to be a stubborn guy, if he knew that there was no way for him to win something, such as an argument, even if he tried his best at it, then he would quit it before taking it too far and ended up losing anyway.

Naruto sighed as he began his walk towards the Hokage's office. Where the old man was no doubt waiting for him and Satsuki to come.

It only took a few minutes for him to arrive at the entrance of the building where his office was located. And when he was there, he saw someone whom he had tried to find back when he was in class.

Though her appearance was different.

"...Satsuki. I see you have cut your hair short."

Instead of the ponytail, Satsuki now sported a short hair that only reached her shoulders. And thanks to her undoing the ponytail and cutting her hair short, Naruto noticed one thing that made her sport a ponytail in the first place.

The so-called 'duck tail' part of her hair. Which was the spikes of hair that sprouted from the back of her head that looked like a duck's tail.

Even when her hair was long, parts of her hair that were located on the back of her head would sprout into spikes. She was understandably embarrassed by that and so she had it styled into a ponytail.

'What made her turn her hairstyle back to this, I wonder?'

Satsuki, who's wearing a black long-sleeved hoodie above her red shirt, a pair of white 3/4 shorts and a pair of black sandals rubbed the back of her neck, blushing and trying to avoid his gaze, "...Yeah." she said rather bashfully.

"What made you cut your hair like that? I remembered you not liking the... 'duck tail', as it were."

She instinctively moved her hand to the aforementioned spikes and tried to comb it down, without avail, "...I decided that it's easier for me to fight if my hair's shorter. Easier to maintain too. I can live with the spikes." she explained monotonously.

Naruto's eyes narrowed out of instinct. That reasoning was quite... uncharacteristic of her. It seemed that the reason she cut her hair was so that she would be more effective in combat situation, but the question is, what kind of specific combat situation that she's thinking of?

'...Itachi.' Naruto deduced in his mind, "Thinking pragmatically I see. Though you could've just change it into a bun or a knot or something like that. That would make your hair short too you know."

She blinked once, as if just beginning to digest what he just said. Then she blinked again, and this time, a look of horrifying realization was plastered on her face, as if she were told that she could've prevented a horrible thing from happening. Then, she swung her palm onto her forehead so hard that it made a 'splat' sound when they collided.

Naruto could barely withhold his laugh, "I see that you forgot those methods. And that you're not really that okay with the duck tail either."

Unable to produce a retort due to how embarrassed she was that she had forgotten simpler methods to keep her hair manageable besides cutting her hair, she punched his shoulder to at least try and 'counter' what he said.

And then she felt stinging pain from her knuckles that made her wince and grasp the hand that she had used to punch him.

She hissed and said; "Gods, it's like hitting a brick wall!"

Naruto touched her shoulder and said; "Sorry about that. Though it's not completely my fault considering that you're the one who punched me in the first place." he added rather playfully as he smirked.

She pouted and muttered under her breath; "You were asking for it."

Hearing that, Naruto chuckled and remarked; "Yeah I guess I was, wasn't I?" he then patted her back once and said; "Well, let's go shall we? The old man's waiting for us inside."

Satsuki shook the hand that was still in pain and followed Naruto closely from behind, staring at his back all the while.

It was clear to Naruto that she wanted to fight her brother. Though he didn't know what her reason was, it felt like an obsession than a passionate desire.

He needed to keep his eyes on her. This didn't seem healthy at all, and if it were allowed to be continued, then the condition might be very irreparable in the near future.

When he opened the door and entered the building with Satsuki, they saw that the Hokage had been waiting for them... Right in the lobby. And they saw the old man sitting on the chair facing the door with his arms crossed as he's smoking from his _kiseru._

"Welcome Naruto, Satsuki." Hiruzen greeted them cordially, he then stood up, inhaled the fumes of the burnt tobacco, puff it out, and then continued with: "We're not going to my office today. Walk with me. I want to show you two something."

...

* * *

"So where exactly are you taking us, old man?" Naruto asked as they were walking down the stairs towards the underground floor of the Hokage building.

"To a room that I have recently commissioned. I've taken a liking of calling it Training Ground Number Zero." Hiruzen answered, "It was once a training room that both of my mentors used for experimenting new Jutsus that they made. Seeing that it's been severely underused for years, I ordered the room to be refurbished to be used for a similar purpose."

"You made a room for us to practice on our powers?" Satsuki asked.

"Precisely, Satsuki." Hiruzen said, "Do not worry, it's quite spacious. Hashirama and Tobirama-sensei made it while considering the scale of their strongest Jutsus. Knowing that one could create tsunamis out of thin air and the other could create titanic wood constructs on a whim, you can be assured that it could house a large amount of people and endure almost anything."

Hashirama and Tobirama Senju. The first and the second Hokage of Konoha. The legendary figures that were known throughout the Elemental Nations as the progenitor of the One Village, One Land system.

Legend was what they were considered as today. But 'superhuman' were the more appropriate word to describe them. The feats that they're able to perform dwarfed even the greatest Shinobies of today's generation.

Hiruzen, their student, considered himself as inferior to them. And for that, he had no shame in acknowledging.

In a way, giving the so-called Zeroth Training Ground to these differently powered people were something similar to 'passing the torch' kind of thing. From established legendary figures to those with the potential to become legends themselves.

He might be too idealistic in the way he's dealing with these people, but he would like for them to be guided. So young, and yet their potential was greater than most people.

Hopefully, Hiruzen could do enough if not more for them. And this would only be the start.

"But old man, wasn't there already Training Ground Number Zero?" Naruto asked, "Though they turned it into a wildlife preserve, it's still a training ground right?"

"Correct." Hiruzen answered, "But this is the _real _0th Training Ground. Considering that this was the first one to be artificially made and officially sanctioned. Though not publicly known."

Finally arrived at the basement, Satsuki, out of healthy curiosity asked Hiruzen; "So... it's like a secret base?"

Hiruzen grinned at the notion, he shrugged noncommittally and said; "Something like that, yes."

"Will the... person who's like us, be there?" The young Uchiha asked again, reminded of the person that Naruto mentioned.

Hiruzen nodded at her answer, "Yes. In fact, she's been there for quite a while."

"Who is she by the way?" the blonde asked, wanting to know the one that they're about to meet.

"She's an ANBU. One of the skilled ones that earned the position of a captain. I'll let her tell you her name herself if she wanted to, but if she didn't want to, then don't push her." Hiruzen answered.

"...Then what should we call her as?" Satsuki asked, still somewhat surprised that this person turned out to be an ANBU.

"Call her with her ANBU codename... Neko."

* * *

Yuugao Uzuki was someone who's quite fond of consistency and of the unchanging, of certainty.

Change, to her, was a rather scary thing. Especially the extreme ones. Even though she could acknowledge that change was necessary, in a chaotic world where almost nothing could be ascertained objectively, it was refreshing to know that there were things that just don't change as time went by.

So when she began to experience strange, bizarre symptoms that infected her senses, she was understandably afraid, terrified, even.

Yuugao was engulfed by the sudden and massive input of information that reached into all of her receptor senses, from her vision to her tactile senses. The overload of information had crippled her mind for a moment, bringing her down to her knees as she groaned in anguish.

It happened almost a year ago. Thankfully, she was not doing something that required her to be focused solely on the matter at hand lest she or anyone near her might got hurt.

But nevertheless, it had a devastating effect on her.

Her senses were overloaded with so many information that she suddenly knew about her own room when she managed to collect herself. From its exact temperature, the sound of tiny insects crawling or buzzing around that made her know the approximate number of them in her apartment, the air pressure, the smell and what caused it, along with how the light interacted with the objects that it touched.

She had perceived _everything_ within her vicinity and remember all of the information she received.

Whenever she went into a larger area, the effect became much worse, as she was not able to concentrate on everything at once with so much stuff going on, as she was able to see and understand everything, but at such a quick pace in a short time.

She had spent weeks in solitude as she requested an extensive leave. Barricading herself from the outside world and withdrawing herself away from missions because of the fear that this... ability of hers would come in the way if she couldn't control it.

She struggled for the first few weeks. Opening her eyes and seeing everything at one glance gave her sensory overload. It was the same reaction that one would have if one were to see the view of the whole planet and everything in it on a one-to-one scale, spread flat like a sheet instead of being in the shape of a ball.

So many information across the distances. So many things that one could see, and it stretched on for thousands upon thousands of miles that one's mind just could not handle it. _That, _ was what Yuugao had experienced. Except it was on a far smaller scale.

And Yuugao only got through it when she realized one thing...

It was not her brain. It was her mind.

The sensory overload was too much for her mind to comprehend at once, but her brain, on the other hand, understood it just fine and had already stored it all inside her memory.

Realizing that, it became easier for her to get used to it. But the process was slow. Agonizingly slow that she had been using a method that helped her to overcome the sensory overload.

Which was to put a blindfold over her eyes. Effectively blinding herself from any visual information that she would receive without and severely minimizing the information input to her brain.

With that, she relied on her hearing, her smell, and her numerous other senses besides her vision.

Only then did she find out what her power had given her.

She heard the sound of footsteps, one was heavy and slow, indicating his age, the Hokage no doubt, considering that he was the one who requested her to come here. The other was bold. Quick, but controlled, a young man if she had to guess, one of the kids that the Hokage had told her. And the last one's steps was rather quiet, subdued and taken with consideration almost to the point of being completely silent, the other kid that the Hokage was bringing no doubt.

Then the sound of the mechanical system being used reached into her ears. The sounds of shifting gears had a rhythm to it, just like everything else in nature, artificial or not. And when she was brought here in the first place, she instantly memorized the rhythm whenever it's used to open the gate or to close it.

The gate was being opened. And she knew that the Hokage and the two children that he's bringing along with him could see her sitting in a cross-legged position on the cold ground of the 0th Training Room, her back facing them.

Her true power... was that she could 'see' everything, with or without any visual information.

But from the change in air pressure, the sound and the temperature of their faint breaths, everything was pictured in her brain as if she were seeing it with her own eyes. Better even, considering that she could 'see' everything around her, not just from her line of sight.

Enhanced Perception. Within the span of one second, she could perceive nearly everything around her. Initially, her mind was incapable of comprehending that many information at such a short time, but now, it had gotten better.

The blindfold helped a lot however. Opening it for a long period of time would cause headaches, seizures, and the likes, so she opted to keep her eyes covered by it. And that brought out her second power, Enhanced Visualization, the ability to 'see' everything through her other senses with near-perfect clarity.

Realizing her manners, she then stood up and turned towards Hokage and the kids that were accompanying him, and she knelt on one knee as she said...

"Hokage-sama. Neko, at your service."

* * *

"At ease, Neko."

'So this is her...' Naruto thought as she watched the ANBU wearing a blindfold which had a color that matched her hair. Her pose was elegant and practiced, and it was obvious that she's very respectful to her superior.

She wore a sleeveless combat shirt colored in black that looked really tight, probably to prevent wind resistance, a pair of black pants, black elbow-high gloves, black trousers that hugged her legs rather nicely, and a pair of black sandals.

The woman didn't seem at all surprised nor did she look disoriented in her movements, considering that she was capable to determine Hiruzen's location with just her hearing. Very accurately too, he must say.

"The ones accompanying you... Are they the ones that you told me about, Hokage-sama?"

Naruto raised his eyebrows in surprise while Satsuki's eyes widened in shock. The blonde boy's mind became more intrigued with the ability that this person might have up her sleeves.

Hiruzen evidently knew about her abilities, and as such, it didn't surprise him that she knew, "Yes. They are. Why don't you two introduce yourselves?" Hiruzen requested both of them as he motioned his hand as a gesture of allowance.

Seeing that Satsuki was rather hesitant, Naruto grasped her shoulder and decided to go first, "My name's Naruto. Kanzaki Naruto." he introduced himself without any preamble. He then turned to Satsuki and whispered, "Satsuki, do you...?"

Satsuki nodded after a moment of silence, and Naruto let her speak; "My name is Satsuki Uchiha." she began, "What's um... What could you do?" she asked, her curiosity got the better of her.

The purple-haired woman with the alias of Neko merely smiled as she said; "I'll return that question to you, Satsuki-san. What could _you _do? This not a one-way street. I'll show you mine _only _if you show me yours."

At this, Satsuki was confused, "But... how could you know what I can do if you can't see?" she said, assuming that the purple-haired ANBU was blind.

"I am not blind, Satsuki-san." said Neko as she took off her blindfold. "I can see just fine."

There was a moment of awkward silence before Naruto pointed out the obvious, "You're still closing your eyes, Neko-san."

Neko merely chuckled at that and said, "Thank you for pointing it out, Naruto-san. I know that I'm still closing my eyes.", her tone of voice indicated her amusement.

"Hm... Can I take a guess as to why you're being blindfolded?"

Neko raised her eyebrows in curiosity, "Oh? Be my guest, Naruto-san. Why do you think I put over a blindfold over my eyes if they could still work properly?"

"It's because you can rely on your other senses to gather information for you." Naruto answered, "As in the case of many people who lacked one sense that most people would rely on, such as sight. But. I think that your senses are more powerful than that. Considering that you're here... I can only assume that you have a super sight or something similar to that?"

Neko chuckled as she said; "Almost correct, Naruto-san. While it is true that my senses are sharper compared to most people, my power lies in my perception. My brain's ability to 'see' everything at a given second is... without any intention in being arrogant or overestimating myself in saying this, impeccable."

"Oh. Enhanced perception. So even without sight, you can still-"

"-See. Correct." Neko said as she nodded, "Sight without sight. In the literal sense of the word. That is my ability. As long as I hear the sound of your faint breaths or feel the heat that you are exuding with my skin, I can 'see' you just as well as most people could." she then motioned her hand towards them and said; "Now show me yours Naruto-san, Satsuki-san."

Naruto looked at Satsuki who reciprocated his gaze with her own, and then he said; "So, do you want to go first, or should I take the privilege?"

Satsuki's response was to pat his shoulder and say; "I'll go first."

The blonde boy nodded and motioned his hand to let Satsuki show the ANBU lady what she could do.

She inclined her head as she walked towards the purple-haired lady, "Don't you want to see what my ability is?" she asked Neko.

In response, Neko said: "On the count of three, I shall open my eyes. At the same time, please perform what you can do. I am still... rather unused to what I can see at a given moment. And do it quickly if you could be so kind as to do that."

Satsuki smiled rather sheepishly as she said; "Don't worry. I'm sure that I can be quick..." her tone of voice shed light to the fact that she's not as experienced as Naruto nor Neko in using her power.

"Very well then. One..."

Satsuki tensed as she extended her hand and mentally commanding her energy to manifest. And as the purple-colored, pulsing, plasmic energy began to come out of her body, she narrowed her eyes as an indication that she's focusing her mind solely to the task at hand.

"Two..."

Naruto crossed his arms and slightly jumped back in case that Satsuki's power overloaded and created an explosion.

"Three."

And Satsuki thrust her hand forward, creating a beam of energy that hit the far wall. Neko opened her eyes briefly as the beam of light created out of an energy field that Satsuki was exuding traveled from the young Uchiha's hand and into the wall, creating a rather noticeable effect on the steel wall.

Naruto and Neko were impressed by what they saw. But the former immediately noticed that she's going to fall to her knees out of exhaustion and as such, got to her side in the span of a second.

An action that Neko didn't miss.

Naruto held Satsuki's rather weakened form tightly to prevent her from hitting her knees to the hard ground, "Satsuki? Satsuki, are you alright?"

Her breaths were rather ragged, and she's sweating rather profusely, but even so, she managed to create a response to his question, "I'm... alright. I just... need a... little rest."

Naruto sighed as she laid her down, "You were pushing yourself over the limit didn't you?"

Satsuki chuckled rather tiredly, and she said; "Heh, yeah..." she admitted.

He shook his head as he placed his hand on her forehead to check if she's having symptoms similar to a fever due to her overexertion, "Who are you trying to impress anyway?"

At this, she opted to stay silent. At this, her lips were sealed. She couldn't tell him that she didn't want him to think that she's weak because of her inexperience. That she wanted him to know that she's strong.

But considering her current condition, it's safe to say that she's a bit embarrassed.

After a moment of silence, Naruto decided to not press the issue on. Instead, he opted to say; "Just rest, okay? Reckless as it was, I have to admit that it was impressive."

Satsuki smiled at that. Hearing him commending her effort like that soothed her.

"But don't push yourself too hard like that again, okay? Strong as we are, our bodies could only take so much strain before they decide to take an involuntary shutdown."

"I'll... keep that in mind." was her reply.

They then heard the sound of approaching footsteps, they turned and saw Neko walking towards them, her blindfold was in place.

When she was near them, she knelt down and say; "You two are astounding." she said approvingly, "Although Satsuki-san? You should have held yourself back. Your breathing and your excessive body heat indicates that you haven't gotten used to using your power. Were you trying to make a good first impression?"

"Somewhat... yeah." Satsuki answered with a weak nod.

"I appreciate the effort. But unless you're experienced, do not strain yourself too hard. I learned that lesson the hard way and I don't want anyone else to experience it." said Neko, "It was excruciatingly painful, the first time I ever tried seeing everything in a one mile radius."

"What happened after you tried that?" Naruto asked.

"I had to be bedridden for a couple of weeks. And my brain felt as if it were made from jelly the whole time." Neko answered, "Not. A pleasant. Experience. Remember that the next time you're thinking of doing something like that again Satsuki-san."

Satsuki had to roll her eyes and begrudgingly nodded at her request. Though she was wrong if she thought that she wanted to make a good show for her.

"Good." Neko said, as if knowing that Satsuki nodded despite the blindfold covering her eyes. "Now... now that we have seen each other's powers... Let's see how far we could go from here." she then smiled rather mischievously and turned to Satsuki, "Though I suppose you need a little rest."

She wanted to say a retort, but she was beaten to the punch when Naruto said; "Are you sure you're okay Satsuki? Can you stand?"

"I..." she tried to get herself up, but she winced when she exerted too much strain after her little show, "...Sorry..." she apologized rather meekly.

"Naruto-san." Neko said to Naruto, "Do you want to stay at her side? We can postpone testing our abilities until she recovers."

"No." Satsuki interjected, "Just... do what she told you. I'll be with you once I'm able to get this blasted body of mine back up." she requested with a little bit of growling at the last part either due to her helplessness in overcoming her exhaustion in a short time or her inability to even stand without feeling a shock of pain shooting through her spine and into her head.

"Well then, shall we start, Naruto-san?"

When Satsuki was laid down gently on the ground, the blonde boy then moved towards the purple-haired woman to respond to her request.

The Uchiha then managed to notice that someone was missing from the premises. His departure was not noticed by her, and so she couldn't help but say... "Where's the Hokage?"

* * *

The said leader of Konoha could be found on the observatory room that overlooked the whole training area. He had taken the advantage of Naruto, Yuugao and Satsuki busy with their business to be able to sneak out unnoticed.

His skill, though had gotten rather dull because of the passage of time, was still rather sharp. It was quite pleasing to know.

And while there, he was not alone.

Even before he got there, she was already there, overlooking her daughter with concern.

"Mikoto." Hiruzen greeted her, though she did not turn to him, he knew that she would not reciprocate the greeting, as evidenced by her lack of response. However, he continued still; "Are you sure... you don't want to go there and see them without this barrier?"

Mikoto sighed as she answered; "Yes. I'm sure. I'm worried for her, and we did have a little talk yesterday, but... I have a feeling that she doesn't want me there. Not yet at least... I hope."

Hiruzen shook his head before he walked to Mikoto and gave her a pat on her shoulder as a gesture of assurance, "It'll be difficult... But I believe that she will be able to treat you like she used to, Mikoto. In due time."

Mikoto rubbed her left arm with her right hand as she softly said; "I hope so."

* * *

Naruto, now noticed that Hiruzen had indeed left them, said to Satsuki, "I don't know... Maybe he had an urgent appointment or something."

"He's watching us from over there." Neko said as she pointed her finger towards a spot on the wall on their left. The spot in question seemed rather inconspicuous enough, but when Naruto narrowed his eyes, he then said...

"Huh. I didn't know we had something like that." Naruto said.

"What?" asked Satsuki.

"One-way glass that could take the appearance of the wall on the other side of the glass." Naruto answered, rather intrigued by the ingenious invention, "He's there, don't worry. And there's... Oh, your mother's here."

"...She is?" Satsuki asked, her tone of voice apprehensive and she seemed rather concerned.

"Yeah." Naruto answered before he adopted a confused expression, "Why? You said that as if it's not a good thing."

"I... I may have withholding the fact that I'm here, meeting Neko-san." Satsuki admitted after a moment of silence that felt somewhat awkward to her.

Naruto blinked twice before he fully digested the given information and said; "You're avoiding her again, are you?"

"No. I'm just..." she then stopped, as if trying to return to what she said before and fix it, and so, she came up with; "I just forgot to tell her, okay? I was just so caught up in training my powers a little bit more to impress you that I forgot to tell her about it."

"Oh." Naruto mouthed out before he said; "Well, that's good. I thought that you two were having another bout of silence or something."

"No of course not, we-"

She then stopped. Her mind began to backtrack to what she said before, and when she realized what she said to him without fully realizing it, her complexion, mainly on her cheeks, began to turn into a dark shade of red.

Seeing this, Naruto immediately went to Satsuki again, "Satsuki? Hey, are you okay?"

Her response was to push him away while trying to hide her face from him. "I-I-I'm fine. I'm fine. W-we'll talk about this later, okay? For now, just do whatever cat-masked lady tells you to."

"Are you sure you're fine?" Naruto asked.

"I-I'm fine. I'm fine. Just... just let me rest okay?"

* * *

Seeing Naruto slowly walk towards Yuugao as Satsuki had requested, Hiruzen couldn't help but to chuckle, "Well, it wasn't because she doesn't want you there after all, Mikoto." he said, "It's because he's just too caught up thinking about Taji's little boy."

Mikoto looked very relieved after hearing what she said. Her expression was more relaxed and she was smiling, happy that her daughter was not avoiding her as she had previously thought.

"It looks like she's a bit shy though." remarked Hiruzen, "So... how long has she been interested in him?"

Mikoto chuckled as she answered; "It's been going on for quite a while. It's something about the boy that really caught her interest. Though being his son, I could understand... And their quick growth, whether physically or mentally, helped accelerate the process along too."

Hiruzen nodded. He too, noticed that Naruto and Satsuki grew very quickly. Despite the fact that they're eight-year olds chronologically, physically and mentally speaking, they're more similar to twelve-to-thirteen year old children. Except they also have rather exceptional maturity compared to children of their physical age.

The old monkey then stopped and clasp his hand on his chin as he adopted a thinking pose. 'Hm...'

An idea had popped into his head. A solution, a way to solve the problem of finding out those who were as 'special' as Naruto, Satsuki and Yuugao were.

Although this would just reveal the identity of the 'specials' that were born at the same year as Naruto and Satsuki, it would be enough. Not to mention, if they also shared Naruto and Satsuki's maturity, Hiruzen wouldn't have to worry about them having trouble adapting.

However, if they had no idea about their power, whatever it might be, then that could pose a problem on its own.

But nevertheless, it shall be done. The method that he will use must not be coercive, however. Not that he planned to _be _coercive, but the idea that first popped into his head, the idea that a Shinobi would be sent to every child that had been experiencing accelerated physical and mental growth in such a short time, interrogated for a while before taking them away was not an option.

He blamed being a veteran of a war sometimes. It really messed with his mind despite the fact that he had been trying to get the 'grizzled old veteran' part of himself subdued.

As he looked on approvingly when Naruto was asked by Yuugao to perform impossible physical feats, his mind began to ponder about the acceptable method that he could use to find more of the... more people like the three that he managed to gather as of this moment.

'...While still in this topic... I wonder what they should be called as...?'

* * *

Though Naruto would agree that the meeting was not a grand event, he couldn't help but to be gleeful at meeting people like himself.

"That was great, don't you think so, Satsuki?" he asked the girl walking beside him, who seemed to be somewhat bashful, as if she's embarrassed by something that he didn't know and she didn't want him to.

But despite the subdued answer, Naruto could see the genuine, bright-looking smile on her face, "Yeah, it was."

The answer was simple enough for Naruto to reciprocate her smile with his own, "Yeah. Starts small, but... I don't know..."

"What's on your mind?" Satsuki asked, her curiosity was somewhat piqued by his apparent elation that she had been seeing for quite a while during the past hours, "If I have to guess, it seems like you have some kind of... expectations from this gathering that the Hokage made."

"I do, actually." Naruto answered, turning to Satsuki, "I now know that there are more people like us out there. And I'm hoping that this is just a start instead of a one-time thing. That from this... people like us could get together and... do something."

"...Do what?" she asked again.

"...Something great. Accomplish something incredible." his face then lightened up as he said; "We are not bound by blood, but by our similarity with each other."

"What's that?"

"That's... a little motto that just came to mind." Naruto answered, "I'm thinking that if there are a lot of people like us, people who are different, even to a Shinobi, would that make us a clan or something like that?"

"But a clan is something defined by their bloodline." Satsuki answered, "Whether the genetic heritage or the ability that came with it, like the Sharingan. And based on what we know so far, our abilities are too varied for every person."

"Hm, so not a clan. But maybe a unity."

"A unity? You mean, you want to create a group exclusively for those like us?" Satsuki questioned.

"Yeah. I mean, not in a sense that I'm making an army of some sort, but..." Naruto trailed off as he ruffled his wild blonde hair, "More of a... team, you know? We'll be there whenever one of us is in trouble, and we'll share our burdens, those kinds of stuff."

"That sounds nice actually..." she remarked, "Still, how could we find more people like us out there?"

"I don't know... yet." Naruto said with an expectant smile, "We'll see."

The silence that came afterwards was not that uncomfortable. And when Naruto dropped Satsuki off at the gate leading to the Uchiha district, she said...

"Hey, uh... You didn't... notice anything weird when we were at that secret training ground, did you?" she asked him, "You didn't hear something weird, right?"

Naruto thought back to the events that happened, and found nothing that stood out, "No... Can't say that I did. Why?"

"...Nothing." she said as she quickly turned her head away to avoid his gaze, "Anyway, I'll... see you in a couple of days, yeah?"

Remembering that the Hokage had told him to come by to the same training ground three days from now, Naruto nodded, "Right. But we'll still see each other in the academy, remember?"

"Right. That's right. Yes." Satsuki said, rather embarrassed for some reason that eluded him, "See ya Naruto."

And then she walked away to her house. Naruto looked at her retreating form for a couple of seconds before he walked the opposite way to his own house.

'...I wonder what I missed.' Naruto thought. He assumed that Satsuki was hinting that there was something that he should have noticed, but yet he didn't. It looked as if she's both relieved and annoyed at his answer that he didn't notice anything strange, or, to be more exact, _hear _anything strange.

So, silently thanking his near eidetic memory, he retraced his steps, so to speak, as he physically walked towards his house.

After a while, he finally finished retracing his steps right until the moment when he met Satsuki in front of the Hokage building. And he was still confused as to what Satsuki meant by hearing something weird.

Physically speaking, however, he was already at his home. Much earlier than he had anticipated, ''Huh, maybe I've been walking too fast... Hope not a lot of people saw me doing that...'

The first thing he noticed when he opened the door was the presence of a pair of footwear that neither he nor his mother had ever worn before. A pair of blue sandals that Naruto did not recognize. And beside it, there was a pair of footwear that he knew his mother usually wore.

'Whose sandals are they?'

_"Naruto?"__, _she called out from the living room.

"Yeah mom?" Naruto replied back, "What's going on?"

_"There's... somebody here to see you." _she answered, _"Come here for a second, son."_

Naruto responded by walking towards the living room, his curiosity was somewhat piqued by this mysterious visitor that wanted to see him.

Judging by the way she spoke about the visitor, it was clear to Naruto that his mother did not know about this person until he or she got here in the first place. In fact, she seemed rather concerned, but for what reason, he did not know.

When he entered the living room, Naruto found out that his mother was accompanied by a girl that he assumed to be of his chronological age. Her hair was blonde, a tad lighter shade compared to his own, her face looked mischievous, mystical, and airy at the same time, and she wore a pair of glasses with round-shaped lenses that obscured her eyes somewhat.

She wore a simple white-colored long-sleeved t-shirt with sleeves that were a bit longer than her arms, and a pair of slightly baggy black training pants.

The girl smiled, her expression brightened when she saw him, she waved her hand and said; "Hi! Naruto, right?"

"...Right. I am." Naruto said, confused as to how this girl, whom he had never met before know his name and his house and acting so friendly to him despite him never meeting her before this day.

"Do you... know her, Naruto?" Taji asked, her expression indicated that she had experienced a rather vexing event. No doubt caused by the girl in front of him.

"I don't, actually." Naruto answered before he asked the girl again, "Who... are you?"

The girl's smile turned into a mischievous smirk as she answered, "My name's Shiho."

And she finished with saying...

"I know stuff."

* * *

**To be Continued...**

* * *

So, who's here familiar with the character Layla Miller in X-Men, who was a part of X-Factor? If it's you, then you must know what the last sentence of this chapter means for the character Shiho.

See you at the next chapter.


	6. Knowledge, Imagination, Memory

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the series Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does, along with Shueisha.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Knowledge/Imagination/Memory.**

* * *

Shiho was not a normal girl. This was something that she knew best.

Ever since she was able to think for herself, she found herself remembering things that, according to everyone else, including her parents, never happened.

For example, she 'remembered' that the Kyuubi destroyed a part of Konoha before she realized that it only got into the village's outskirts before it was defeated by the Yondaime. The thing that made her somewhat confused was the fact that her parents also died during that particular day. Separately.

She remembered her father being trapped under the debris of their house after he sacrificed himself to save his wife and daughter. She remembered her mother dying on the way to the hospital because her abdomen was punctured through by a piece of metal. And then she remembered seeing his mom and dad dead by a building that was not their house collapsed on them as they were trying to get out.

Though she could remember the real one that happened, the fact that there were these memories that weren't supposed to exist confused her somewhat.

Did it scare her, however? No. Not at the very least. Considering that she initially thought that it was just an over-active imagination of hers acting up, she didn't think that it was something worth mulling over about.

But these memories piled up and piled up until to the point where it took some effort to remember the events that she and the others involved in the memories _actually _experienced.

Among these phony memories however, there was one focal point in which everything remained the same.

It was a boy with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a gaze that could empower or weaken you, depending on whose side that you were on, his or the opposite of his.

Naruto was his name. Although, in most of those memories, she 'remembered' that his family name was not the one that he had right now, which was Kanzaki. Instead, on those memories, his family name was Uzumaki.

Also, his physique in reality was a lot different in those fake memories, she remembered him being as small as any children of their age instead of being as big as a pre-teenager despite their similar age.

Fascinated by the differences, Shiho became rather taken by the boy, meaning that she would like to know what caused the difference of his family name in reality that she's inhabiting.

Though they never did occupy the same class in the Academy, even on those phony memories, Shiho remembered passing by him or seeing him from afar or bumped into him.

She felt a bit like a stalker, seeing him from afar and such. But once her curiosity is piqued, it's amazing how far she would go to observe something that caught her interest. Somewhat obsessive really, but hey, what could she do when she's so caught up in her object of fascination?

So one day, she decided to come by to his house to meet him personally, and... well, he, understandably, got confused with her statement that became her favorite sentence to utter whenever her parents asked her about where these memories come from.

"What do you mean you know stuff?" was the question that he asked her when she told him that.

As a response, she shrugged playfully and said; "It means exactly what it's supposed to convey. I. Know. Stuff. Many things that just piles up and piles up in my brain to the point that I had to do something about it. At least to one of them in particular."

"And I'm included among those things?" asked Naruto who looked rather skeptical, but willing to listen.

"Yeah. Naruto Uzumaki, right?"

At this, Shiho noticed that Taji looked rather shocked, in contrast to her son, who was only confused. He then quickly said, "Uzumaki? My name's Naruto _Kanzaki_."

"Ah yeah, of course. I sometimes mixed things up from these memories, sorry about that." Shiho apologized rather quickly.

Seeing the look on his mother's face, Naruto asked her, "Mom, are you alright?"

"...Y-yes. I'm okay Naruto, don't worry." she said, trying to hide her anxiety. Deep inside her mind, she was flabbergasted by the girl's statement that Naruto's last name was Uzumaki, which was how it should be had _that _event didn't happen that night.

Naruto, though he did not buy the act, decided to shelf that thought for later and focus on the girl named Shiho, he turned to the blonde spectacled girl again and said; "So... you said you know stuff."

"That I do, yes." she answered without hesitation and a confident-looking smirk.

"What kind of stuff do you know?"

"Oh, a lot." she answered it rather simple, "Sometimes, I know stuff that according to many, never happened. And most of the time, I had a hard time telling which one was the right one."

"The right one?" questioned Naruto.

"Yeah! You know, the one that actually happened. See, there are some memories in my mind that I have no explanations as to how it got there." Shiho said as she pointed at her head, "I mean, things that I remembered happening, but when I talked about it with my parents, it turned out to be phony. Like... like the Kyuubi destroying a part of the village eight years ago."

At this, Taji intervened, "But the Kyuubi only got into the outskirts of the village."

"Exactly! That's what I'm telling you, I know stuff that I should not know!" she explained rather hotly, "And the reason I'm here is that in those 'phony memories', as I called them as, you are always the same, except here, you're not."

"...What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked, turning rather curious and intrigued if still a little bit skeptical.

"In here, you are _Kanzaki_ Naruto. But from those phony memories, I remembered that your last name is Uzumaki." at this, Taji went perfectly still and held her breath for exactly two seconds before she got out of it, "I just want to know why. Why the different name, why the different look? There must be a reason that there are things that I know but not exactly real and why these memories keep popping up, I'm just so... curious... And tired... And I want some answers... (sigh)... Look, do you... even understand what I've been saying over the past few minutes?"

"...Believe it or not, yeah." Naruto answered, "I'm... having many wild guesses as to how this could have happened to you and how you're able to have these memories... But one of the likely conclusion is that... you are like me."

"Huh? Like you how?"

At this, the edges Naruto's lips slowly creased upwards before he said; "I'm different. And... so are you." he finished by pointing at Shiho.

"...O-kay? I'm still waiting for an explanation here."

Naruto leaned his head closer to her and said in a whisper, "You are someone with an ability that not even a Shinobi could have through bloodline or training." he began, "You... are a superhuman, Shiho."

* * *

...

Superhuman. The term was somewhat arrogant in Naruto's opinion, but he was not the first one who suggested it.

_"It just makes sense to me." _said Satsuki back at the Zeroth Training Ground, _"I mean... we are humans... but we are capable of doing things that most people can't do. Even for Shinobies. So..."_

Considering their abilities, Naruto had to concede to Satsuki's statement and adopt the suggested moniker for people like them to use.

Though Naruto wanted something more... humble, he began to understand that in many ways than one, they really _were _'Super'. Any similar adjective would also do it, but among them all, 'Super' was perhaps the one that sounded the most friendly.

Compared to astonishing, amazing, mega, ultra, and so on. Things like The Astonishing Men sounded too much like a circus group to be taken as a serious suggestion.

"Superhuman?" asked the bespectacled girl, "What is that? A term for an elite Shinobi or something?"

''No, it's a... recently made up term to define people like us." explained Naruto, "People who could do what other people just can't."

"You don't think that this is just my overactive imagination or something?" she asked, her expression seemed rather mischievous, as if daring him to concede that that assumption was a bit outlandish.

"Considering that you had poured your heart out, I think it's fair of me to give you the benefit of the doubt. And besides, I-"

After a silent moment, Shiho asked, "What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Right, so! What do you say about meeting someone else like you? Only one of them is available now, sadly, but I'm sure she won't mind meeting another."

Shiho shrugged and answered, "Alright. I can do that. Though I had to be back before dark, so I guess I can only meet her for a short time."

"Alright, let's go then." he exclaimed as he rose up. He turned to his mother and said; "Uh... Can I go?" he asked her permission.

Taji's expression was filled with concern, she stood up from the couch and said to Naruto, "Naruto... Are you sure about this? For all we know... it could be her imagination. Maybe she mixed up reality with what she made up in her mind?"

Shiho cast her head down, as if embarrassed or ashamed. Naruto, though he entertained that notion for a second, once he saw the look on the bespectacled girl's face, it was all but gone from his head. He turned to his mother and said resolutely, "I believe her."

At this, Shiho looked at Naruto in awe and gratitude. Awe because of it being the first time that somebody believed her, and gratitude because of that very same reason.

He turned to her, and enforced his trust in her by saying; "Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith. Even though the possibility of you simply imagining it all is there... I can see that you were not trying to lie. That you have no underlying purpose that you can achieve through deceiving me."

Naruto then turned to Taji and said; "And nothing you say would convince me otherwise, mom."

Taji looked like she had a retort ready to be used, but after seeing how adamant he was, she merely sighed and shook her head, "Fine... I'll trust your judgment Naruto. Go ahead and take her to Satsuki. Just don't come home too late, okay?"

"Got it." Naruto answered with a nod of his head, "Well then, let's go, shall we?"

Seeing the two blondes walking out of the door, Taji couldn't help but to be reminded about what the girl said...

_"Here, you are **Kanzaki **__Naruto. But from those phony memories, I remembered that your last name is **Uzumaki**."_

Though she had no idea what kind of power that she had besides the fact that she could somehow know one of the last names that Naruto would be using if she did not adopt him, Taji was scared by the other things that she 'knew'.

Their powers came in many different forms, yet besides all that she knew about Naruto's powers, the girl brought that familiar chilling feeling that spread from her spine and onto the rest of her body.

And Taji could only assume what it was. Was it clairvoyance? Precognition? Whatever it was... it scared her.

But perhaps it was because she's afraid of what Naruto would come to assume thanks to this power of hers. The boy always had a sharp sight, able to see something that most people would miss with just a single glance, like a tic that showed what a person might be thinking, their disposition towards certain objects or people, things of the sort.

Perhaps she's afraid that Naruto would get curious as to why the girl 'remembered' that he was supposed to have the name Uzumaki as his family name instead of her own. That he would come to the conclusion that he, despite what she had been telling him and what the people who knew whose son he really was had kept as a secret, was actually adopted by her.

...

She loved him as much as she would love her own biological son. This much was true. And as such, she was scared of what he would think of her if he knew that he was not of her blood.

Despite the fact that he meant the world to her.

But the time when she had to tell the truth would inevitably come. Sooner or later, through her, others, or even through himself.

Taji sighed as she laid herself down to the couch, suddenly feeling exhausted just because of a presumption that may or may not happen in the near future.

'But what difference would it make, really?' he thought after a moment of silence.

She knew her son well. And when she thought about what he would do if this were revealed...

A smile was formed on her lips, slowly but surely. She knew what he would do and how he would react when he knew... And she realized that she had nothing to worry about.

* * *

When Satsuki arrived at her home, she found her mother already waiting for her in the living room, sitting at the couch. Her expression was somewhat brighter compared from before. As if her mind had been cleared of all the things that had caused her to look so sullen.

"Hey mom..." Satsuki greeted her with a rather half-hearted wave of her hand, "Sorry I didn't tell you where I went, I was just so caught up in the thought of this meeting you that I forgot." Satsuki fiddled with her own fingers for a moment, as if feeling rather awkward, and then she said; "Again, I'm so sorry for leaving without saying anything."

Mikoto looked at her and nodded, "Alright. I accept your apology, Satsuki." she said to her, "I assume Naruto knew that I was there?" she asked.

"Yes. He saw right through the obscured window."

Mikoto and Hiruzen knew that was the case when Naruto looked directly at them that time, so she did not ask that question for the sake of getting an answer but a confirmation. "Still, why did you forget to tell me? It wasn't as if you're doing something wrong, so you obviously didn't try to hide it, it just slipped your mind, right?"

"Y-yeah." Satsuki answered.

"So why did you forget to tell me?" she asked with a teasing tone of voice.

At this, Satsuki had the decency to look a bit sheepish and embarrassed, "Uh... I..."

_"Satsuki! Can I see you for a minute?"_

Hearing Naruto calling for her from outside of their house, Satsuki's attention was immediately diverted towards the entrance, Mikoto then said this to her daughter, "Go ahead Satsuki. Answer the door, he sounds really eager to meet you."

Seeing her mother's 'I know why you forgot' smile, Satsuki sputtered some incoherent words at her before turning to the door and said; "Okay, I'm coming!"

As Satsuki ran towards the door, Mikoto stood up and walked towards the door, wanting to see the events that would follow.

...

When the young, raven-haired girl opened the door, she expected Naruto to come alone. Perhaps he came to talk to her, or to tell her something that she didn't know, basically reasons that would allow her to spend a bit more time with him.

But she didn't expect him to bring another party to the fold. The bespectacled, blonde-haired girl beside him smiled in a manner that seemed sheepish, expectant, and embarrassed at the same time.

"Hi." she said before Naruto could say anything.

"...Hi." Satsuki, rather uncertainly, replied to her greeting.

"Satsuki. Meet Shiho. Shiho, Satsuki." Naruto introduced the two strangers as he motioned his hand to the respective person when he called each of their names. "Shiho here... is like us. Satsuki."

"Like us? ...Oh." Satsuki's mouth formed into an 'o' shape as she realized the meaning of that sentence, "Huh. Didn't expect to see another one so soon like this. Alright, come in, come in." said Satsuki, urging them to go inside her house.

"So what's your power Shiho-san?" Satsuki asked the blonde girl.

The girl smiled as she answered, "I know stuff."

"...What?" Satsuki asked, a bit dumbfounded by the unexpected answer. "Knowing stuff? What kind of power is that?"

"Well... I have memories about things that I discover much later as something that never ever happened, but can't help but think that it did. Or that something that I would know later as untrue, but can't help but think that it's actually true."

When Shiho arrived at the living room with Naruto and Satsuki, Mikoto heard her say an example of such a memory.

"For example, I remembered you being a boy, and your name is supposed to be Sasuke."

Satsuki and Mikoto, after hearing this little tidbit from the strange bespectacled girl, could only look at her with the most deadpan expression that they could muster, and from their mouth, they uttered this in the flattest tone of voice they had ever produced...

"What."

* * *

Files upon files upon files.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's current affairs was a hard task to be done, but nevertheless, something that he recognized as important.

Right in front of him, placed upon his desk for his eyes to see, were the files of people who had the greatest chance of being a superhuman like Naruto.

Most of them, granted, were children of Naruto's chronological age. Hiruzen sorted them out from those who only had a small chance of being a superhuman based on how they grew over the past eight years.

Naruto and Satsuki were noticed by many people, including him, as children who outgrew most of their peers physically and mentally despite sharing the same year of birth. Hiruzen assumed that it was a share that these people shared to varying degrees, and so he began the search for these Superhumans based on that criteria.

And the number was surprisingly little. Though it shouldn't have been that surprising to him, considering that he had assumed there might be something within the human DNA that allowed some people to become a Superhuman while the others could not even hope to become one.

His mind was already crafting plans to meet them. Hiruzen assumed that only few amongst these children knew that they're different. Their power might haven't even manifested yet, unlike Naruto and Satsuki. So Hiruzen thought that a conversation must take place between him and the child's parents.

'While the child will be requested to take a blood sample to check for anomalies.'

The reason that he didn't want to try that with either Naruto, Satsuki and Neko was because he knew that it would not yield the best result, so to speak.

With Naruto, his highly durable skin would not allow any kind of penetration from the needle so that his blood could be extracted. With Satsuki, her power was reactive in nature, and Hiruzen assumed that it would go into overdrive and repel the needle and the one grabbing it with a blast of her energy.

And with Neko's heightened tactile sense, it would cause a disruption with her 'sight'. Hiruzen had attempted it once she had assured him that it would only be temporary and that she could withstand the pain. And the reaction that she had when the tip of the needle got into the surface of her skin cost him a nurse who had to be taken to the infirmary so as to treat her injury.

She profusely apologized, and Hiruzen did not dare to try it again lest he wanted to deliberately hurt one of his doctors or nurses, which would not happen anytime soon.

'Violent reaction seems to be a common occurrence with them... I could only hope that we would have no further 'accidents'.' Hiruzen thought before he looked at one file in particular, regarding the youngest child of Tsume Inuzuka, "But then again... that's one of the reasons why they have to be grouped together and trained."

Like a Shinobi, they require a proper grasp of their ability so that they could prevent it from endangering someone. However, unlike a Shinobi, they might not even realize that they have a special ability that differentiated them from other people in the first place.

And if they did not even know it, how would their parents know?

'Hm. Quite a venture... However, the reward is worth the hassle.' Hiruzen thought rather optimistically before adding, 'I hope.'

* * *

Even after an hour of explanation spent while they were sitting in the chairs at the living room, Satsuki still find it hard to believe that the Shiho girl had an ability similar to what she and Naruto had. To her, she just had an overactive imagination.

However, even though she's having a hard time believing her, she couldn't help but think that her so-called 'knowledge' was too elaborate to be something that she thought of on the spot. And even if she had planned this for a long time, for what reason would she lie about her being a boy named Sasuke? Or that her mother was killed in the Massacre even though she's there with them, alive and well.

Unbeknownst to her, Mikoto was also having trouble discerning her 'knowledge''s authenticity. She wasn't sure whether this girl was just a little bit crazy, a very imaginative person, or someone who just loved making up the most ridiculous, outlandish things and saying it with a straight face.

"I can see that you don't believe me." said Shiho, she looked as if she expected it to happen but still feeling the emotional pain nonetheless. She sighed and said; "I didn't expect you to, anyway."

Seeing her like this, Mikoto felt a little bit saddened, realizing that she might have experienced this numerous times, possibly from her own parents. "Forgive us Shiho-san, but... We just... find it hard to believe."

"Yeah. I mean, me being a boy?" Satsuki asked before she shuddered, "I can't even imagine what I'd look like."

"Well, you look like you." Shiho answered, "Except, you know, a boy instead of a girl."

Naruto, seeing that this won't get them anywhere, turned to Shiho and said; "Shiho, is there... anything else that you 'remember' about Satsuki? Maybe... something strange?"

Shiho thought about it in silence for a few seconds before she said, "Well, there is this one thing..."

She then said one thing that really stood out. One thing that made them think that there's a possibility that her power of 'knowing stuff' was indeed genuine. Ridiculous as it might seem.

"I remembered that... Konoha's symbol was not the spiral leaf." Shiho began, and she finished it with... "It's your clan's symbol. The fan. And the Hokage was... uh... Fugaku. Fugaku Uchiha was his name, I think."

Naruto, Satsuki and Mikoto immediately realized the grim implication of such a statement. Being the select few who knew about the real reason why a large number of members of the Uchiha clan was murdered, they _knew _that the change of the village's symbol and Fugaku holding the position of the Hokage were the indications of Uchiha clan's successful rebellion.

"It was really weird." Shiho continued, as if not noticing that the tension in the room just increased twofold, "I mean, if the symbol is changed, that must mean that something big happened that involves your clan. Like a... like a rebellion or something."

Mikoto gulped a non-existent lump in her throat. What she said hit too close to home. And the way she's acting made her think that this girl knew next to nothing about the failed coup d'etat, and so, she could not just make that up due to a lack of basis for her to use.

Every lie, especially the good ones, must be based from the truth to be believed. And considering that this girl showed that she had no idea about the failed coup made Mikoto more willing to believe that she was telling the truth when she said that she 'know stuff'.

"...what?" Shiho asked after a tense silence made her notice that Naruto, Satsuki and Mikoto were looking at her as if she had grown a second head. "Did... did I say anything weird? I mean, compared to the other stuff that I've said?"

Mikoto chose to be the one to take hold of the conversation by being the first to speak after a tense silence, "It's not that you said anything weird. What you said before, about the... symbol of the village being the Uchiha's fan? Let's just say that it's something that nearly becomes a reality."

Even with the glasses obscuring her eyes, they knew that her eyes were as wide as they can be, "...Wait, a reb-, a rebel-, a rebellion nearly happened? Y-your clan was... planning to rebel?" she asked before she said this; "W-wait, is that why they were murdered? Because Itachi Uchiha knew and- ...H-hold, hold on... doesn't that mean that he's- ...Oh... Ooooooh...!"

Suddenly, but not surprisingly, Shiho began to panic, "W-wait, I'm... I'm not supposed to know about this, am I?"

"That depends." Mikoto said as she crossed her arms and shot a stern look at Shiho, "What did you get from that little tidbit of mine?"

Shiho could only stammer out of nervousness as she had a severe case of panic attack that made her brain unable to create a proper response in a short time, "U-um... I-I got, um... I mean, I-I understood that... I-Itachi Uchiha... killed a large number of your clan... a-as ordered by h-his higher-ups and uh... um... uh... mmm... uuuuh..."

Seeing her began to hug herself and curl up out of fear and panic for knowing more than she should have, Naruto grasp her shoulder tightly with one hand while using the other to rub her back so that she would be calmer, and said; "Hey. Hey, Shiho, calm down, don't worry. Don't worry, okay? They're not going to hurt you because of what you know. Right, Mikoto-san?"

Mikoto sighed out of regret. Despite what the girl now knew, she was still a child. And the way she asked that question did make her sound like a ruthless interrogator that would torture her if she gave her the wrong answer.

She blamed her experience in being a Kunoichi for that one.

She walked closer to the profusely shaking girl, knelt down so that she would be at her eye-level, and said; "I apologize if my question seemed harsh. Naruto's right, it's okay. We're not going to hurt you."

Shiho looked at her, and asked; "Y-you won't?"

"We won't." surprisingly, it was Satsuki who said it, not Mikoto, "As long as you don't tell anybody else."

Shiho quickly made a horizontally-aligned zipping motion with her hand over her lips, "Not a soul. Not even my parents would know of it."

Mikoto nodded approvingly, "Good." she said as she grasped the other side of her shoulder that was not touched by Naruto, "And let me just say this... I don't think that we will doubt your claim of 'knowing stuff' ever again."

Knowledge, despite how useful it could be, also had a property which few knew, and fewer still would ever know in their lives.

Knowledge enlightens. This is known by many throughout the world. But what most didn't know, Knowledge could cripple an individual. Maddened, disillusioned, driven to suicide, apathy, fear, these things can be caused by a certain Knowledge.

Not everything in the universe are supposed to be known. Even Shiho, for all her claim, might not be able to know the deepest, most terrible secrets of the universe...

But she could certainly come very close.

"Still, I can't help but wonder where all these false memories of yours came from." Naruto said, "Is there any noticeable things that happened every time before it occurred or is it just random?"

"...Mostly, it's random." Shiho answered, "But lately... I don't know..."

"What?" asked Satsuki, somewhat curious about this so-called 'power' of hers.

"Lately, I've been experiencing a lot of 'pulls'. Like the feeling when your hair's suddenly being pulled at by someone for no reason at all." Shiho began to explain, "These pulls now predate almost every recent memory pop-ups. But it still comes up randomly. I can't try to summon a memory to surface, if that's what you're getting at."

At this, Naruto began to contemplate as to why her strange power was so different compared to any of them. The function and the mechanics of her power was chaotic and unpredictable, not to mention her power was something that didn't exactly make sense, let alone exist.

But yet, here she was, having a memory of a Konoha being ruled by the Uchiha due to their supposedly successful rebellion despite not knowing that it's something that nearly happened in reality.

"Hm... considering that my powers' are increasing... I suppose that in time, you could control it." Naruto said, "And who knows? It might become something even more than that."

Shiho was both intrigued and confused, and so she asked him, "What do you mean by becoming something even more than it already is?"

At this, Naruto merely smiled and said; "My flight doesn't manifest itself right off the bat. At first, I could only jump very high, very far, and delay my fall by hovering, but I wasn't able to really fly until much later."

Shiho was silent. Her brain was trying to digest the given information, and after a minute, she said the first thing that came to mind, "...You can fly?" she asked with an awestruck voice.

"...Ah right. I haven't told you what my powers are." Naruto uttered out in a moment of realization that caused him to sheepishly rub the back of his neck, "Uh, yeah, like you, I have a... well, I have a few numbers of _powers _actually. Satsuki here, like I told you before, also has one."

"What's yours?" asked the curious Shiho.

In response, Satsuki enveloped herself in a thin energy force field that glowed faintly. She smiled sheepishly afterwards and said; "This is the best that I could maintain at this moment."

"Whoa...! That is cool..." Shiho uttered out as she extended her hand to try and touch the thin barrier. And pulled it away in one quick motion when she felt as if she had been slightly electrocuted.

"Ow!" she screamed out, but instead of getting afraid, she merely laughed, "Wow! That is _awesome!_"

Satsuki chuckled and shook her head at seeing her more-than-simply-excited reaction. She looked at Naruto and remarked; "She's fun."

Naruto and Mikoto reciprocated her grin with ones of their own. This Shiho was something else, that's for sure. Her power, her personality, the way it's easy for her to accept things so fast...

Well, considering what her power was, it'd drive her insane if she wasn't able to quickly adapt.

"Still. We'll have to introduce you to the old man Hokage sometime." Naruto said, "Though I'm not sure if your power can be properly measured, you're still one of us. And we have to stick together, no?"

Shiho smiled brightly and said; "...This is nice, you know..."

"What?" asked Satsuki.

"Having friends. You know, real friends, someone who could actually understands me. Someone that I could... share this thing that I have. It feels nice." she said in a manner that seemed to show both her sadness and her happiness.

Seeing this, Mikoto became rather concerned, "Do you not have any friends, Shiho?"

"No. Well, even if I have some people that I can talk to, they're not really that close to me. We only talked a bit when we're required to, most of the time, they like to talk to their other friends, the ones that they do _like_ to talk with." Shiho explained to the Uchiha matriarch. "Maybe it's because they find me weird. Which wouldn't be that surprising."

Her face brightened once again when she said; "But here I am now, with people that I can actually relate to. Looks like I did the right choice coming to your house, Naruto."

The boy whom she mentioned merely smiled as he said; "Glad you made the right choice too."

"Though meeting the Hokage is mandatory, correct?" Mikoto reminded them, "No matter the ability is, he needs to be told to."

"Right. Well, do you have anything else to do after this, Shiho?" asked Naruto.

"Actually... my parents don't exactly know where I'm going, so they're probably worried right now." Shiho explained. "I kind of went to your home out of impulse after the Academy's over, with practically nothing planned in advance."

"Well, it's not that late, they wouldn't mind if you got home a little bit late, right?" the whiskered boy asked again, somewhat eager to welcome her to their makeshift group of remarkable people.

"I don't know. I... have never gotten out from home this long." Shiho answered before she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, "I'm not really an active person."

Naruto sighed, knowing that despite what he wanted, she would still have more time in the future to be introduced to the Hokage. For now, what she needed was to go home. "Then I'll take you home."

Shiho nodded as she stood up, "Mm! Sounds great!"

Naruto then turned to Satsuki and Mikoto and bowed slightly; "Well then, we'll be leaving now. Thanks for having us."

"Anytime." Mikoto said as she stood up as well, "You know you're always welcome here Naruto. You haven't forgotten that, have you?" she rhetorically asked with a smile.

"No, of course not. But thanks for reminding me." Naruto said to the Uchiha matriarch, he then turned to the bespectacled blonde girl and said; "Well, let's go, yeah?"

Shiho nodded her head before turning to Mikoto and bowed slightly in a sign that conveyed her gratitude For her hospitality and choosing to not do anything harmful to her despite what she knew. And afterwards, both blondes left Mikoto's house as quickly as when they came.

After she saw them closing the door, Mikoto turned to Satsuki, and she couldn't help but to be amused at her annoyed expression. It was as if she's Naruto's girlfriend who just watched him being too friendly with another girl.

"Satsuki?" she called, deliberately stressing her tone of voice to show her amusement and bring her daughter out of her reverie.

"...Y-yes?" she asked, finally noticing that she's far too focused to respond to her mother without a delay in her reaction. "What is it mom?"

Satsuki became more uncomfortable when her mother merely shook her head with that knowing smile on her face, "Nothing. Nothing at all. By the way, seeing that it's going to be nighttime soon, let's prepare dinner, shall we?"

Sometimes, her daughter could be so obvious that it almost hurt her to withhold her laughter.

* * *

The entrance door of Shiho's house was opened, and from the inside, came out a man, most likely her father judging by his appearance, wearing a simple green t-shirt and a pair of brown shorts.

Like her, her father shared a blonde hair with the same shade. And that's not the only similarities between them as he too, wear glasses. Though not as thick and obscuring as the one his daughter was wearing.

"Hi dad, I'm home." Shiho said as she stood beside Naruto.

Her dad nodded and said in a rather jovial tone; "Welcome home." he then turned to Naruto and said; "And I see you brought a boy with you. What's your name son?"

"Naruto. Kanzaki Naruto."

"Ah, you're Kanzaki's boy?" Shiho's father asked rhetorically, "Hm. Do you know that many parents, especially mothers, talk about you?"

"I only know little about that, sir." Naruto said rather bashfully. He had heard from his mother that sometimes, he would be the main topic of many housewives' gossips, so he knew that at the very least, he was quite known among the community.

"They say you are a remarkable young boy. Developed so fast that one could mistake you being in your early teens despite your age." Shiho's father continued, "Seeing you firsthand, I can actually believe in one of their gossips now."

The older man then extended his hand and said; "My name's Daisuke. Daisuke Shimamori, and I believe you've met my daughter, Shiho."

"Yes, I have. Pleasure to meet you Daisuke-san."

"Likewise. Now, what brings you to our house?" Daisuke asked Naruto.

"Oh I'm just here to accompany Shiho back home." answered the blonde boy, "Is there a problem with that?"

"No of course not. It's just that my daughter rarely, if ever, brings someone into our home. It surprises me, 's all." Daisuke assured Naruto, "So what have you two been doing?"

"Uh... I talked with him about... the dreams that I was having, remember dad?"

Daisuke nodded but his brows were furrowed, "Yes I do. But uh... why do you need to talk to him about that?"

"It's not my imagination acting up dad." Shiho said, "It's real. It's all very real."

Daisuke sighed, "Well, you sound convinced, unlike before... Which means that it's been clarified, somehow, someway... But I'm not seeking an argument. No matter what your mother's been insisting, I know that what you have could not be a product of a simple imagination."

Hearing this, Naruto got the impression that Shiho's mother did not believe, or having a hard time to believe her daughter's claim of knowing things that did not happen.

"It's simply too elaborately crafted to be a lie." Daisuke stated, "But what is it exactly that makes you remember all these things?"

"It's her ability, Daisuke-san." Naruto said, "She could do something that other people can't. And in her case, it comes with this... knowledge of things that never happened."

"But could've." Daisuke finished, surprising Naruto, "The Kyuubi stories... are the things that could've happened, once I think it through. Grim as they might be."

He then shook his head and said; "Anyway, do you want to come in, son?"

"No thank you. As I said, I'm here just to accompany your daughter home." Naruto said as he slightly bowed his head, "I'll be leaving now. See you later Daisuke-san, Shiho."

"Bye Naruto." Shiho said with a smile on her face.

Shiho kept on looking at Naruto until he's completely gone before turning to her father, who's raising his eyebrows, a sign of amusement, complete with a smile that would remind one of a cat, "Come inside before you got the urge to chase him down the street, young lady." he said in a mockingly gruff, commanding voice.

Shiho merely shook her head and said; "Will do, sir." she replied playfully.

* * *

...

* * *

Like almost every other day, Naruto did not sleep through the night. This time, it was because his mind was enraptured with Shiho.

Or, to be more exact, of her ability. The so-called 'fake memories' of hers was not actually 'fake', per se, they were things that did not happen, but could've.

Somewhat confusing, but that's one of the easiest way to explain it.

However, Naruto was certain that it had to be connected to chakra somehow. Naruto knew that his powers came from the slight changes in how their energy is converted, which was the same with Satsuki and Neko. It altered their bodies in a way that allowed them to have special abilities that no other people, not even other Shinobi could have.

'Perhaps it changes how her brain functions? But what kind of changes that made her able to remember things that she shouldn't or couldn't have? Altering one's brain is not enough.' he thought to himself, 'Hm... damn it, she's very puzzling.'

Though Naruto had a very limited knowledge about the biological working of a human body, the way that her chakra modified her to be able to have 'fake memories' puzzled him.

Naruto had been entertaining many possible reasons as to why she had such a strange ability, and to his befuddlement, nothing seemed to fit. Whatever she had, it's as if it just existed, inexplicably, without any reason that could explain as to how she got it.

Hell, even his own powers could be explained to a degree, even Satsuki's and Neko's, but Shiho's? Too perplexing.

And that was why he couldn't stop thinking about her. Her ability, that is. It was as if he's faced with a difficult riddle that he needed to solve in a short time. Except that he was _not_ required to solve it at a given time.

So caught up in his thoughts, Naruto didn't realize that the sun began to rise from the east. At the small burst of light that came from the yellow star peeking up from the horizon, Naruto decided that his obsessive streak needed to stop.

So he floated down to the floor of his room and went towards the kitchen.

His mother was still working night to morning shift at the hospital, so for now, he was alone in the house. Though some would say that leaving an 8-year old kid alone in the house was a pretty irresponsible thing to do, when the said 8-year old kid turned out to look like a fourteen or sixteen year old and think and act like a responsible person, one could say that one was on the losing side of the argument.

Plus, considering that his strength could pretty much outmatch any adult in terms of strength, the argument became more and more pointless to be debated.

Naruto prepared himself some bread and milk and then consuming them without much gusto. He still felt incomplete for not able to figure out how Shiho's power actually worked.

He shook his head and thought, 'Sometimes I really hate this obsessive side of myself.'

So he decided to take his mind off a bit by killing time through reading something. Granted, it was not a really riveting piece of literature, considering that it was a newspaper, but still it did its job.

When he felt that he had already taken up enough time, he went upstairs to change his clothes into that of an orange hoodie over a dark blue shirt and a pair of black trousers. Combined with black shoes.

He got out of the house, locked the door and went to the Academy by foot.

After passing by several places that he's already familiar with, thanks to him using the route that he usually took, he arrived at the Academy. However, in front of the gate leading to the building's interior, there was a Chuunin, one of the Academy instructors, who had a few piece of papers in his hand.

He saw the Chuunin looking at him, then the Chuunin flipped through the clipped-on papers, and stopped at a particular one. Then the Chuunin looked at him again, this time he looked a bit more certain, and he approached him.

"Kanzaki Naruto?" he asked the blonde.

"Yes?" Naruto replied with an uncertainty in his tone of voice, "Can I help you?"

"You're not going to class today. You're going to the Hokage's office."

And Naruto's morning became slightly more interesting...

* * *

Hearing his office's door being knocked, the Hokage said; "Come in."

And from there, entered the person that he had been waiting for. The boy was rather early to be able to meet everyone else that he had also called to his office, but nevertheless, his presence was most welcome.

"Hey old man. So what's this about? I saw a Chuunin carrying several papers that included me and several others to come here." Naruto stated as he closed the door, "What's going on?"

'Always the one to notice the littlest of details he was.', Hiruzen thought to himself, "Though you are earlier than expected, I welcome you all the same. Your mother has also been notified, but she'll be a little late."

"Welcome me to what?" asked Naruto.

"To a meeting of... 'Superhumans'." answered Hiruzen. "I've compiled a list of possible superhumans based on a physical trait that I hypothesized as something that all of you might share."

"Which is?"

"Accelerated maturation, physically and/or mentally. At least, it's something that's only shared by those who are born with superpowers. Those like Neko might not be covered, but this is the best that I could do for now."

Naruto, hearing the term that Hiruzen used, raised one of his eyebrows out of amusement, "So a Shinobi or Kunoichi has Jutsus... While we have... 'superpowers'?'"

Hiruzen shrugged in response, "It fits, no? After all, what you do is not exactly a technique. It's more of an ability, a talent, something that would grow into prominence, sometimes without you realizing it."

"The difference is, our talents, compared to the more conventional, ordinary ones, have a bigger potential to be volatile and/or destructive if improperly controlled." said Naruto.

"Then it's only the matter of training them, correct?" Hiruzen asked in a rhetorical manner. "The name and nature of our powers might be different, but one similarity between them that we can agree on is that the wielder of the power needs a lot of practice to utilize it correctly and safely."

Naruto, approving that statement, said; "True. So... who have you called to meet here?"

"You know most of them I believe." said Hiruzen, "Because I am basing this search on the trait that you and Satsuki shared, I compiled a list that consists of several of your classmates with varying degrees of precocious growth spurt and have invited them here along with their parents to explain the reason why they were called."

Naruto was somewhat pleased. The possibility that some of his classmates might be superhumans had crossed his mind before, and to know that Hiruzen had acted on the same train of thought was quite satisfying of an information.

But there was some problems connected to using that method.

"But searching Superhumans based on that trait alone won't get us far, will it? I mean, we won't be able to find people like Neko-san who was already on her prime when she received her power. Not to mention that we will also get some children who are not us but share that one trait." Naruto pointed out the flaws in the method that Hiruzen was using.

"I know of that little hiccup. And to counteract that, I will assign a medical check-up for these kids, see if they have an anomaly in their genetic code to determine whether they are superhuman or not." Hiruzen said calmly, "A little bit complicated, but I figured that this is the best that we could do for now. Until we get a better one, this is the only method that we could use."

Naruto had to admit that there's a severe limitation as to what they could do to find others like him. Though it bugged him, he knew that there was nothing that he could do to change that. Not yet, at the very least.

"So what other methods do you suggest, old man?" he asked him.

"Well... on the top of my head, if we had a person who could reach out to other superhumans due to a similarity in their brain wave patterns, it would be more than enough of a help." Hiruzen threw out the first idea that came to his mind, "A... telepath, shall we say."

"You mean something similar to the technique of the Yamanaka clan?" asked Naruto, remembering the Shintenshin no Jutsu that allowed them to possess someone by entering their minds.

"But on a larger scale and a more effective method." Hiruzen added, "However, it's... nothing more than a hopeful thought for now. But considering that there's someone like you, whose limits are...well, practically undetermined as of yet due to the sheer magnitude of your power... Well, who knows?"

Naruto smiled in a way that showed he's a bit abashed by Hiruzen's compliment. Naruto never had any kind of outlet that would force him to use his powers to their fullest, and so, it could be said that his power had no limits to speak of.

But Naruto thought that his power must be limited somehow, and that was why he was a bit embarrassed by the compliment.

Despite the fact that it was a possibility, Naruto did not like to think that he had no limits. It was arrogant to think as such.

"We'll just see old man." said Naruto, "But how will we discover their powers if by chance, they themselves did not know they had one?" Naruto asked again.

"Then I'll arrange something for their ability to show." Hiruzen answered, "However, if you and Satsuki manifested your powers at this age, then I'd assume that the superhuman ones that I've called here are no different. So until I've proven wrong... we'll continue with this plan."

Naruto was still unsure, but decided that worrying about this now was not really that productive either, so he silently agreed and opted to wait until the arrival of the parents and children that Hiruzen had invited to form any other plans.

'This means that the secret has to go out now...' Naruto thought, knowing that what Hiruzen did would mean that what he has must be known to others as well now 'Well... If it weren't because of my own initiative, then it would be because of other's.' he rationalized.

It was half a minute after he decided to take this in stride when he realized something, "...Wait, while we're on that, did you put Shiho Shimamori into your list by any chance?"

Hiruzen took a moment to recall the list that he made and said; "...I believe I did not. I saw her file but I didn't include her. Is she a superhuman as well?"

Naruto nodded as he stood up, "Yeah, but she's not as physically grown up as me and Satsuki. If this meeting's happening, then it just won't do if she's not here. I'll go and get her and her father, old man. I'll be right back." he said as he quickly went out of Hiruzen's office.

He stopped and looked at his surroundings for a moment, and when he noticed that though there were a few number of people around him, most of them were not focusing their eyes on him.

So they did not see him disappear and become nothing but a blurry line to their eyes.

* * *

Arriving at Shiho's house, Naruto knocked the entrance door three times. And this time, instead of her father, it was an older woman, presumably her mother that opened it, considering that unlike Daisuke's brown hair, she shared the same shade of blonde hair as her daughter's.

"Hello young man." said Shiho's mother, "What can I help you with?"

"I'm looking for Shiho." said Naruto, "Is she here? Or is she already in the Academy?" asked the blonde boy successively.

"Oh she's already in the Academy." said she, somewhat curious and confused as to what Naruto wanted with her daughter, "Say, aren't you Kanzaki's son, Naruto? What are you doing here instead of being in the Academy with Shiho?"

"I got a... more important thing to do." Naruto said, "Anyway, I'll see you later Shimamori-san."

"Now hold on just a minute." said Mrs. Shimamori, halting Naruto midway, "Why are you looking for my daughter?" she asked in a rather stern, but concerned tone of voice.

"There's this meeting that she had to attend." Naruto said, he was about to invite her, but after remembering that she was more than just skeptical, he changed his choice of words; "You and Daisuke-san should come to. It's something that the Hokage made, very important, you do _not _want to miss it."

"Does it concern her progress in the Academy in any way?" asked Mrs. Shimamori.

"No. It's something else." Naruto answered with complete honesty, "You should come with Daisuke-san. I'll get your daughter, it's going to happen quite soon, so be prepared."

And with that, Naruto began to run to the Academy, already excited at the prospect of gathering what was known of his kind together.

* * *

"Alright class, now we will-"

Iruka was interrupted when Naruto knocked three times in quick succession and opened the door to the class all by himself, "Sorry for the interruption. But I need to take Shiho for an indefinite amount of time." after a second of silence, Naruto added, "Hokage's orders."

"Uh... very well." Iruka said in a moment of bewilderment and confusion, "Shiho-san." he called out to the bespectacled blonde girl.

In response, she stood up almost immediately. Somewhat confused, but nevertheless, she trusted Naruto and thus she came to him. "What's up?" she asked rather quietly.

"Let's go outside first, shall we?" Naruto asked rhetorically as he guided her to walk out of the class.

"Wait, Naruto." Iruka called out to him, and he continued when Naruto stopped and turned to him, "Weren't you supposed to be in class?"

"I was called as well." Naruto quickly said to Iruka to explain the situation, "Continue with your teaching, Iruka-sensei. We'll see you later." he said as a farewell.

When Naruto left the classroom, Iruka was reminded of something, '...Oh yeah, wasn't there a Chuunin telling some children that they've to go to the Hokage's office instead of the class? ...What was that all about?'

* * *

"So what is it Naruto?" asked Shiho as she followed him outside the Academy. "What's going on?"

"The old man Hokage is gathering people like us. You know, superhumans." Naruto told her. "And for some reason, you're not on his list. It's a mistake, it must be, but considering the way the old man's trying to find people like us, it's not that surprising."

"What method did he use?" Shiho asked, curious as to why she was not listed.

"Accelerated growth. Basically, the list of potential superhumans contained several children that grow so fast in physical and/or mental sense." Naruto explained, "And no offense, but you don't appear to have a..."

"Excessive growth spurt. I know." Shiho said without any sense of vitriol in her tone of voice, instead, it sounded as if she really understood what he said, "Considering that my power is an aberrant in itself compared to others, I guess I shouldn't be surprised if I don't share a trait that you guys have."

Though Naruto sensed no bitter sarcasm in her voice, Naruto immediately said this; "Hey, that stuff does not matter, alright? You're still one of us, and that's the most important thing."

Shiho smiled at Naruto's assurance. Despite the fact that Shiho was not asking nor implying that she wanted him to do so, she appreciated it nonetheless, "Thanks. So who's coming besides us?"

"Well, I assume Satsuki will be there as well. Along with your parents." Naruto answered, "But I don't know about the others. I asked about you first, knowing that there's a possibility of you not being included in the list. I didn't exactly ask the old man about who was on it."

"Aaw, that's sweet of you Naruto." Shiho remarked after hearing the first part of his answer.

Naruto smiled and patted her back, "Hey, there's no way I'm going to let you miss this just because your name is not included."

"You're really nice, Naruto. Thanks for that." Shiho said with a bashful smile.

"No problem." was Naruto's response, and afterwards, both blondes continued their walk towards the Hokage's office in a comfortable silence.

However, after just a few minutes, Shiho felt a familiar feeling in the back of her head. The feeling of someone pulling a large chunk of her hair out of the blue that indicated her power was acting up.

And this one was powerful enough of a feeling to bring her to her knees as she placed her hand onto her head to try to alleviate the woozy feeling that came without warning.

"Shiho?" Naruto said her name as he prevented her from falling down. He saw that her eyes were not staring at anything in particular and appeared unfocused, as if her mind was not really there.

Naruto shook her slightly, trying to get a reaction out of her, but there was no result, as she appeared to be in a trance.

He then lifted her up and moved towards somewhere where she can lie down, which was the nearest bench available. After he put her down gently, he remained at her side and keep on watching her in case she required an immediate medical attention.

Because as of now, Shiho's condition did not deem a visit to the hospital. That said, it was as of now, who knows what could happen in the next few hours?

After a couple of minutes, Shiho seemed to finally come to her senses, judging by how she's at least focusing on a certain object instead of staring blankly at nothing in particular. The object in question was Naruto.

To be more specific, she was looking at his striking blue eyes.

"Hey. Are you alright?" was the first thing that Naruto asked.

Shiho's response was delayed. There was a new 'memory' that sprouted to her mind, one that involved him, and several other people including her.

"I... I saw..."

Her voice was wavering, as if she was not sure if she should share what she had seen with Naruto. But she gulped and continued speaking, "I saw... T-there was Satsuki there, among a lot of people as I... helped her, I think? With several others...? And then there was..."

"What? There was what, Shiho?"

She looked at Naruto with fear in her eyes and said; "...I saw the Kyuubi. Looming over a destroyed Konoha. The ruins... the corpses... There were so many dead people..."

* * *

**To be continued...**

* * *

So, with the not-so-subtle foreshadowing, I shall see you at the next chapter! Thank you for reading and please leave a review!


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